Rex Trulove
Many recipes call for brown sugar, specifically. What do you do when you’ve used the last of your brown sugar or find that it isn’t available in your location? The easy answer is to make your own.
The truth about brown sugar
Many people are under the mistaken impression that brown sugar is sugar that hasn’t been processed as much as white, granulated sugar. That isn’t the case at all. If anything, brown sugar is more processed.
Although there is more to it, granulated sugar is made by first getting the juice out of sugarcanes or sugar beets, then boiling it and refining it. In the process, the thick sugary residue is removed. That residue is called molasses. What is left is dried and milled to produce granulated sugar. If it is milled more, it produces baker’s sugar. If it is ground, it becomes powdered sugar. This is basically how sugar is produced.
To make brown sugar, molasses is added to white sugar. Yep, you read that right; it is first removed to make table sugar, then added back to make brown sugar. Thus, it isn’t any less refined than regular sugar, and since an extra step is involved to put the molasses back into the sugar, it could be thought of as being more processed.
Making brown sugar
Knowing the above, you’ve probably figured out that in order to make brown sugar, you simply need to mix molasses with regular sugar. Molasses is sweeter than sugar, so I’ll not give an actual recipe to list amounts. However, 1/4 cup of molasses to 1 cup of sugar is a good base idea to start with. You can vary it to taste.
Making your own also means that you have total control over the consistency. You can use granulated sugar, baker’s sugar, or powdered sugar, depending on the ‘graininess’ you desire. You also have your choice of molasses you can use; light molasses, regular molasses, or blackstrap molasses.
Emergency substitute for molasses
It works the other way around, too. If a recipe calls for molasses and you don’t have any or molasses isn’t available where you are at, simply use brown sugar instead.
Incidentally, since molasses contains moisture, as the moisture evaporates, brown sugar can get hard with time, especially if exposed to the air. Don’t discard it if it does. Simply put the brown sugar in a container with a tight fitting lid, put a slice of fresh bread into the container with the brown sugar, then put the lid on tight. In a few days, the brown sugar should be soft again. The sugar robs the moisture out of the bread.
Now you know the secret. You can make your own brown sugar or substitute for molasses, as the need arises. You simply need to have one or the other; brown sugar or molasses. This might even save you money. Store-bought brown sugar often costs more than the ingredients needed to make it.
Oh, and for sugar that is less refined? That is simply “raw sugar”. Though the processing is less, it usually costs more, however.
Very interesting, Rex. Thank you.
Thank you!
This nice from, I have worked in a sugar processing factory and to an extent you are right, what makes it brown is the presence of molasses while white sugar is completely bleach to whitish colour actually both do not have positive effect on the body except it is fortified with vitamin
You’re right, sugar isn’t good, especially in large amounts. Molasses is a little better than white sugar, so brown sugar is slightly better than white sugar.
You are right that why most people prefer brown sugar to white but people who don’t know the implications appreciate white sugar more, May be cos of it colour
In the US, cost is probably the deciding factor. Brown sugar costs much more here than white sugar. It is up to 8 times more expensive.
This is a very useful article
I’m very glad that it is helpful to you!
Now I know what to do if I run out. My son has made it, but I didnt watch to see how he did it.
It is something that is really good to know, especially if you do a lot of baking. A long time ago, I used to worry about the price of brown sugar, never knowing that it was so cheap and easy to make my own. lol
Rex, this is a very informative and useful article. I had no idea how sugar was really made.
A lot of people never give it a thought, Brenda. However, this is trivia that can be useful in the kitchen. :))
I will try one now
It is thankfully very easy to make.
Well I learned something, plus you didn’t mention Zuccini so that is even better. Awesome post rex!!!
LOL…no, but I do occasionally like to bake zucchini with butter and brown sugar. hahaha Thank you for the compliment.
Well, this is a new knowledge for me!
That is a good thing. Personally, I strive to learn something new each day. As my late grandmother was fond of saying, “If you go through a day without learning something new, you’ve wasted a day.”
You are right! Your grandmother is very wise and bequeaths that wisdom to you!
Thank you!
You”re very much welcome, Rex
Very interesting! I recently watched a movie on how sugar is made and it seemed quite a long and complicated process.
It is a long process as it lengthy, but it is fairly straight-forward. The commercial process can be complex, but there are people who refine their own sugar from canes or beets that they grow, without using all the equipment that commercial companies use.
Wow. This is very interesting. But brown sugar costs less. At least that’s the case here in our country. 🙂
It’s probably unrefined or partially refined sugar (the one that takes less processing and is considered healthier), and not the refined white sugar that’s dyed with melasses. In that case, you are lucky! Here, it would cost even more than the latter, because it’s fashionable.
Probably that’s it. Sometimes we get dark brown sugar almost molasses like. If I remember it right, the first time sugar goes thru the refinement process, the result is always brown.
I think so too. It’s similar with flour and everything else. My parents have told me that when they were younger, brown bread was cheaper than the white one, and people would buy it for their livestock only. Now it costs double because it’s trendy, and if you are lucky, it’s the actual thing and not just dyed white bread. ?
Dark brown sugar usually has dark molasses and light brown sugar uses light molasses. Since dark molasses has a higher sugar content, dark brown sugar tends to be sweeter.
It is entirely possible that the brown sugar you have is actually raw sugar, which is minimally refined.
As for white bread vs brown bread, white bread is usually made with bleached white flour. That is, over 90% of the nutrients have been removed. They often add some back, but it still has very little nutritional value. Brown bread is made with either unbleached flour or whole wheat flour. Unbleached flour is healthier than bleached flour, but whole wheat is healthier than unbleached. Whole wheat flour contains the entire wheat seed, so it has more nutrients.
@artbytes26, in the US, it is the other way around (usually). Right now at our store, a pound of brown sugar costs $2.68. A four-pound bag of granulated sugar costs $2.39, so the brown sugar is over four times more expensive.
Wow that is quite expensive! Here in the Philippines a kilo of white sugar is just around one dollar. Brown sugar is much lesser. (And people are already complaining about the price.)
That isn’t a great difference for the white sugar. A kilo is 2.2 pounds, so a little less than $2 for four pounds. It is a little more than $2 here. Still, your prices for brown sugar is probably quite a bit less than here. Then again, the US doesn’t grow much sugar cane. California and Florida do, but not many other places in the US can. We do grow a lot of sugar beets, but not much sugar cane, so most sugar cane is imported.
Nice.