How to Make Brown Sugar

Learn how to make brown sugar at home with only two ingredients! It’s super soft, full of flavor, and you can make it as dark or light as you need depending on your recipe. It’s perfect for families on a budget that love to bake!

Have you ever started a recipe only to realize you’re completely out of brown sugar? That used to be me. But ever since I learned how to make brown sugar at home, I actually haven’t gone back to store bought brown sugar again! 

Not only does my homemade brown sugar stay soft for way longer than the store bought stuff, it also makes my baking even better. I like to make up a big batch of brown sugar so I always have some on hand.

So if you want a crazy good store bought brown sugar substitute, or you’ve always wanted to learn how to make homemade brown sugar, you just have to try this recipe.

Ingredients

There’s only two ingredients! Yes, really! All you need is white granulated sugar and full flavor molasses.

You can make a light or dark brown sugar by changing the amount of molasses in the recipe. If you want to make lighter brown sugar (golden sugar), you use a bit less molasses. For dark brown sugar, add a bit more.

How to Make Brown Sugar

First, add your sugar to a large mixing bowl. An electric mixer or food processor makes mixing your homemade brown sugar easier, but you can do it by hand too.

Now you’re going to add about a third of your bottle of molasses. The amount you add will change how light or dark the molasses is.

Mix for about 5 minutes with an electric mixer, scraping the sides. You can add more molasses now if it’s not dark enough, and mix again.

For a smaller batch, you can mix the 1 cup of white sugar and your molasses into a bowl by hand.

It should look like brown sugar now!

That’s it, you’re done! Store in an airtight container, or go bake something with it right now. You know you want to!

FAQ’s

Does Homemade Brown Sugar Save Money?

Yes! Three 10lb bags of sugar only cost me $14. Then I added a $6 bottle of molasses, which is all I needed to make 30lbs of brown sugar. Total cost: $20 for 30lbs

On the other hand, store bought brown sugar is about $2.20 for a 2lb bag. That’s about $33 to make 30lbs! Total savings: $7

Do you have to mix it together or can you just add the white sugar and molasses to your recipe?

It depends on what you’re making. Something with a wet batter, like gingerbread, won’t be affected if you add the sugar and molasses separately while substituting brown sugar. 

A recipe like chocolate chip cookies, though, will come out better pre making your brown sugar and then adding it in place of brown sugar in the recipe instructions. 

Sulfered or unsulfured molasses?

Unsulphured molasses is regular molasses. It’s extracted from mature sugarcane, and is a byproduct from refining sugar. Since the sugarcane was allowed to mature before being processed, it doesn’t need preservatives.

Sulfured molasses is made from young sugarcane. To preserve the sugarcane before it’s processed, sulfur dioxide is used as a preservative. 

Since it’s more natural, I always recommend people use unsulfured molasses in their baking or brown sugar recipes.

Pro Notes/Tips

• Homemade brown sugar should be stored in an airtight container. If stored properly, it should keep up to two years.
• A food processor or electric mixer makes this recipe easier to mix. You could also do it with two spatulas or even mix it up with your hands!
• Commercial brown sugar recipes have a 3.5% molasses to sugar ratio by volume for light brown sugar and 6.5% ratio for dark brown sugar. So this is the closest measurement to that. 
• If your brown sugar goes hard, you can toss a slice of bread into the container to soften it up. You can also soften brown sugar by microwaving it in 20 second increments covered with a moist paper towel. 

Recipes using Homemade Brown Sugar

Now that you have all the brown sugar you need, it’s time to put it to use! Start small with this 3 Ingredient Cream Cheese Apple Dip or use it to make this Freezer-Friendly Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp. I also love using my homemade brown sugar to make Homemade Pop Tarts with Brown Sugar Glaze and it’s the secret ingredient for making Ah-freaking-mazing Brown Sugar Fudge. Or you can really put it to the test with my Master Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. 

Do you love your homemade brown sugar? Or maybe it saved your baking! If this recipe worked for you, tag me in your picture on Instagram @happymoneysaver and use the hashtag #happymoneysaver!

This post was published on October 3rd, 2011 and was updated with clearer instructions, tips and pictures on February 23rd, 2021.