Let me show you how to make Brown sugar at home with just two simple ingredients. All you need is white sugar and molasses, and in just a few minutes, you have homemade brown sugar.
What is brown sugar?
Brown sugar is a mixture of molasses and granulated sugar that gives your bakes a deeper, slightly caramel flavor and a beautifully brown color. It is a key ingredient for many of my Dutch recipes but it can be hard to find. That's why I want to share my go-to method with you and show you how easy it is to make this pantry staple at home with just two ingredients.
Why should I make brown sugar
- It is much cheaper than store-bought and tastes exactly the same.
- No need to have separate types of sugar in your pantry! With this recipe, you can make both light and dark brown sugar
- Brown sugar is not always easy to find. With this recipe, you'll never have tixigxigdiy
Ingredients
Sugar: To make homemade brown sugar, you only need two ingredients: granulated sugar and molasses. White sugar works perfectly, but you can use cane sugar as well.
Molasses: To give the brown sugar the desired color, moisture, and flavor, you need to add molasses.
How to make brown sugar at home
Making brown sugar at home is so easy, I can barely call this a recipe! Simply add the sugar and molasses to a bowl and mix until the sugar is evenly coated with molasses.
Once your sugar has a golden brown color, you can use it in your favorite recipes or transfer it to an airtight container for later use.
How to use this brown sugar substitute
Brown sugar is a key ingredient in speculaas, gevulde speculaas, and pepernoten, but also in many baking recipes like brownies, cakes, and almond cookies. I also use it in my recipes for brown sugar cinnamon oatmeal, brown sugar simple syrup, and oat scones! You use it instead of regular white sugar if you want to give your bakes a deeper flavor or use it to sweeten your favorite drinks.
My tips for the best results
- If your molasses starts to form clumps in your sugar, don't worry. Use a spatula or fork to press them to the side of your bowl and continue stirring until everything is mixed.
- Store your brown sugar in a ziplock bag. This makes it super easy to squeeze out the air to prevent it from clumping together.
- While you can store it for months, it is known for clumping together, so I like to make small batches each time I need it.
Frequently asked questions
If your sugar has dried out, you can add two drops of water or a piece of bread to your container.
Unfortunately, molasses is key in making your own brown sugar, so there isn't really anything you can replace it with. I have heard of people using maple syrup or honey, but I have never done this myself, and it will affect the flavor. If you have tried it, let me know how it turned out!
Yes! This is exactly the same. It's not the same as the bastersuiker traditionally used in my Dutch recipes, but it is close enough. The color of your speculaas might be a little lighter, but still delicious!
I have never tried it myself, but I can't see why this won't work with other sugars like cane sugar, coconut sugar, djkd, or even stevia.
Storage
Sugar lasts forever as long as you keep it in a dark, cool space, and brown sugar is no exception. I like to use a glass container like a mason jar, but any air-tight container will work.
Recipes that use brown sugar
How To Make Brown Sugar
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons molasses
Instructions
- Add your granulated sugar and molasses to a bowl.
- Mix the sugar and molasses with a fork until all the lumps are gone and the sugar is completely coated. You can press larger clumps of molasses to the side of your bowl to incorporate them into the sugar.
- Transfer the brown sugar to an air-tight container or use it right away.
Notes
- For light brown sugar, you need to add one teaspoon molasses to 1 cup granulated sugar.
- To soften your brown sugar, you can add a piece of bread to your container. After a few hours, your brown sugar should be soft again.
- Homemade brown sugar will keep for at least a year.
This is very helpful. I've always known you could make your own brown sugar but wasn't sure about the ratio
This is such a helpful guide, thank you!
Such a useful guide! It’s great to know how easy it is to make this at home. Definitely bookmarking this!