Make Brown Sugar At Home With 2 Simple Ingredients
Keeping brown sugar on hand for cooking and baking can be a pain. If you are like me and you do not use a lot of brown sugar in your home you may find that it is not worth stocking. In this case, you may want to know how to make brown sugar.
Making your own brown sugar is easy and a great way to have more control over what your family is eating.
Why you should make brown sugar at home
Making homemade brown sugar is a great way to save money on this common backing ingredient. Brown sugar at the grocery store costs much more than regular table sugar yet is simple and easy to make.
You can reduce food waste by making your own brown sugar if you do not use it often. Brown sugar over time will dry out and become hard as a rock. If you rarely use it and you can not use it up before this happens you create a lot of food waste.
When you make your own brown sugar you can have more control over the quality of the sugar and even how dark it is. Molasses the ingredient that makes brown sugar brown is packed with healthy vitamins, fiber, and other nutrients that are good for you. When you make your own brown sugar you have control over the quality of the nutrition.
What you need to make brown sugar yourself
Making your own brown sugar is extremely easy and only requires two simple ingredients. All you need to make your own brown sugar is:
:: Molasses
:: Granulated sugar
I prefer to use a whisk to mix them but my kids seemed to have lost mine when I needed it this morning. So instead I just used a fork instead of pulling out the food processor, blender, or mixer but you can use any of these devices if you need to make a large batch or simply want it easier.
How to make brown sugar
Start by adding your molasses to your sugar. For this, I needed about 1/5 cup of brown sugar so I used 1 and a half cups of sugar and 1 and a half teaspoons of molasses.
For a light brown sugar use 1 tablespoon of molasses to 1 cup of sugar. This will give you about the same consistency as the stuff you get at the store.
Mix until you no longer have clumps of molasses. If you are making large batches it is best to make this using a mixer or a blender to do the work for you. I did not mix mine perfectly seeing I was just coming to use it for a brown sugar ham glaze anyway.
How to adjust the flavor of your brown sugar
If you prefer a lighter brown sugar or a darker brown sugar you can easily make it exactly to your liking with this recipe. Simply add less molasses to make light brown sugar or more to make dark brown sugar.
When you are making brown sugar at home you may notice some issues with clumping of the molasses. This will break down as you continue to stir and mix. If you are mixing by hand make a point to attack these lumps head-on to speed up the process.
How to make low-carb brown sugar
One cool trick is to use a granulated sugar replacement to turn your favorite sweetener into the rich brown sugar you love without spiking your sugar levels. This is a great alternative for those that want to bake with brown sugar but need to consider sugar intake for health reasons.
How to store brown sugar to keep it from getting hard
If you have made more brown sugar than you needed you can easily store it in an air-tight container. Just like the stuff from the store, it will start to dry out over time. One trick is to store brown sugar with a slice of sandwich bread to help maintain moisture and keep it from clumping.
What to do if your brown sugar dries out
Brown sugar that has dried out is still perfectly safe to use. To soften it back up add a few drops of water and microwave until soft and stir to return your brown sugar to its original texture.
