How to Make Your Own Brown Sugar
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On your real food journey, have you ever missed having brown sugar in the house?
Like many, once our family started on our real food journey, one of the first changes we made was to avoid heavily processed sugar, which most certainly included the heavily-refined sugars at the store – and brown sugar among them.
Instead, we use whole cane sugar in its various forms – evaporated cane crystals, sucanat, rapadura, etc – which works well in most applications, but for things like powdered sugar and brown sugar – well, not so much. Sometimes there are just no substitutes, and for at least a couple of years, we just went without.
But then I discovered, just like with homemade powdered sugar, it's actually incredibly easy to make your own brown sugar.
Want to know how easy? Look:
To make one cup of light brown sugar, combine 1 cup whole cane sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoons molasses (any variety).
To make one cup of dark brown sugar, combine 1 cup whole cane sugar with 3 tablespoons molasses (any variety).
This is my (current!) favorite wholesome sugar – and it's organic and fair trade, yay!
This is our (current!) favorite molasses.
If you have a food processor, the job is even easier and makes the course whole cane sugar crystals a bit finer. However, if you prefer to work by hand, it's totally doable with just a large bowl and a fork. Merely stir and mash until the mixture is completely homogenous.
See? Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
Or at least, that's what my seven-year-old daughter would say – and this job is perfect to give to a child who is eager to help in the kitchen, as even to a toddler can master this recipe!
I had no idea it was even possible to make your own brown sugar. I can’t wait to try this!
Could you use just regular white sugar?
Yes, this method works fabulously with just regular white sugar. I call for unrefined cane sugar merely because it is less processed and still retains some minerals, which the plain white sugar lacks. But the process will work just fine with whatever granulated sugar you have, so if plain white sugar is what you have, then go for it! 🙂
How cool! Thanks! Your favorite sugar is sold at my Costco for half the price of Amazon. Its my fave, too!
I get it at Costco too and it’s definitely cheaper! 😉 But not everyone has a Costco nearby or chooses to purchase a membership, so Amazon provides another option if needed.
My husband has diabetes and so I have been trying to cook while real food ingredients, but also with ingredients that won’t raise his blood sugar too high. What is a good healthy sugar alternative? I have been using Trivia, but I don’t know if that is my best option. Thank you.
Hmmm, well, typically I would recommend using unprocessed stevia rather than any of its processed cousins, but stevia can be rather hard to turn into brown sugar since it’s not a crystallized sugar. 😉 Perhaps use stevia and a bit of molasses whenever you’d like to have that brown sugar taste?
Do any other readers have any suggestions?
My husband also has diabetes and he does not like the taste of stevia.
Coconut sugar has a glycemic index of 4, which is the same as artificial sweeteners. You can use it as sugar substitute in any recipe, 1 cup to 1 cup. To replace brown sugar, just pack it. You don’t need to alter your recipe’s cooking time either. We use it in hot drinks as well. I make my own powdered sugar with it and have successfully used it to make icing.
It has a nice delicate caramel flavor and is a light brown color so you won’t get a real “white” cake or icing.
The only recipes that cannot use it are cold drinks such as lemonade.
Love easy peasy alternatives like this one 🙂 I was wondering how well this would store if I mixed up a big batch. Have you tried it?
I’ve stored it up as long as three weeks (only due to the size of my batch), but based on that period of time, I assume it would keep as well as store-bought. It still clumps as store-bought does, so a clay stone or other hydrophilic storage help would definitely be helpful. 🙂
Do you have a good substitute for the almond flour? My son has a peanut allergy. I would love to try your recipe though so I would welcome any ideas. Thanks!
I’m not sure what almond flour to which you’re referring, as there are no nuts in this brown sugar recipe. Might you enlighten me? I’d be happy to help. 🙂
Love making my own,it feels good that you don’t have to by everything