Do you make your own brown sugar?? I do! My cookies, cinnamon rolls, oatmeal, and pretty much everything else that requires brown sugar, turns out much better with the home-made browns sugar. It also stores well. I have been making my own for a couple of years now, and from my personal experience, it has never gotten hard. It stays moist, unlike the store bought stuff.
The best part is how easy this stuff is to make. Who would have known? All you need is white sugar, molasses, and… umm… wait are those really the only ingredients? Yes they are! A mixer of some sort does make things a whole lot easier though, so I will add that to the list of things needed.
Homemade Brown Sugar
(1) 5 lb bag of granulated white sugar
(1) 12 oz. jar of Molasses
Directions: Take a large mixing bowl and add your sugar. While on a low speed add half a bottle of molasses. {The more molasses you add the darker the brown sugar. If you like the flavor of light brown sugar better, then don’t add as much molasses.}
Let the mixer go for 5 minutes, turn it off and scrape the sides of the bowl. If you like a darker brown sugar, this would be the time to add more. I usually add all my molasses to my sugar, but it all depends on your preference.
Continue Mixing and scraping until it’s well blended and looks the way brown sugar is supposed to look. Then go make some dessert… you know you want to!
Great tip! I had no idea it was so easy!
That’s kinda different. Is it cost effective? I find it a bit different because that is how they make white sugar; by refining it and taking the molasses part out (as far as I understand it).
I really have no idea how they make white sugar… All I know is that my baked goods come out tasting sooo much better using this homemades stuff. If I were to take a spoon and eat a spoon of store bought brown sugar vs. homemade brown sugar the store bought tastes better, but in baked goods the homemade bs makes the items more moist, and delicious. Plus if you are in a crunch, and don’t have any brown sugar on hand you can make some if you have white sugar and molassas! 🙂
Karrie,is that a 5# bag of sugar? Thanks. I’m looking forward to trying it.
Definitely am going to do this using organic sugar, thanks!
Also, could you tell me how many pounds of sugar that is and how many ounces of molasses?
Can you, or has anybody tried, making this with Splenda?
I have never tried Splenda…could be yummy?
Its a 5 lb bag of sugar and a 12 oz. jar of molassas. 🙂
Does this need to be stored any differently than store-bought brown sugar?
Nope – I just store it in an air-tight container. 🙂
raw natural sugar has a yellowish brown color to it. If a white product is desired, sulfur dioxide may be bubbled through the cane juice before evaporation; this chemical bleaches many color-forming impurities into colourless ones. Sugar bleached white by this sulfitation process is called “mill white,” “plantation white,” and “crystal sugar.” This form of sugar is the form most commonly consumed in sugarcane-producing countries. Yes – the molassas is taken from the sugar crystal to make it white.
Source: http://askville.amazon.com/refined-sugar-made-white-added-make/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=8464011
I had no idea you could make your own! That is great!. Thanks for all your work and great ideas.
Now….where is the best place to buy the molassas (any coupons available)? Thanks for the tip; excited to try it out!
If you store the brown sugar with a piece of bread it will keep it moist. I use the heel of regular sandwich bread that my children refuse to eat.
This same trick works for cookies or cakes that require moisture (e.g. Madelines). A simple 1/2 or whole piece of bread tucked into a container keeps it soft and moist.
I am so excited to try this. I was telling my husband and he is excited to make it with me.
I’ve made my own brown sugar for a long time. Usually make small batches:
2 tablespoons per cup of white sugar. Enough for a batch of cookles.
Also, when the molasses is opened, it’s stored in the refrigerator. Shouldn’t the homemade brown sugar be stored in the refrigerator?
I never knew that! I have some seriously old molasses that’s been in my cupboard this whole time. Oops!
I usually just store mine in an air-tight container… I havent had any problems? But maybe you could store in fridge and it would last even longer! I though molassas was kind of like honey in that it would store for a super long time…oops!
My molasses bottle doesn’t say “refrigerate after opening”….
Hi, I just wanted to know how much more this would last than buying store bought brown sugar, and is it a money saver to make it vs buying it? Im not that familiar with brown sugar and would enjoy learning more. Thanks :O)
Hi Karrie,
I’m new to your site but will definitely be back often! As a chef I can add my experience with molasses. Basically molasses does not need to be refrigerated. It may stay a little longer if refrigerated but it stays long enough in my opinion without refrigeration, also, it does not get as viscous if kept at room temperature. I actually think that by keeping molasses in the fridge and frequently bringing to room temp and chilling – over and over – that this may actually decrease the overall shelf-life.
Molasses is “fresh” and good to use as long as it’s consistency looks about the same as when bought. There are some very obvious signs that your molasses may not be good anymore: 1) if mold starts floating on top; 2) if it starts crystallizing heavily in the bottle (it still is likely OK but probably not worth the hassle to ‘restore’; or 3) if it smells funky (and if it is bad, you will definitely know it.
If you don’t use molasses too frequently (and you should, it is really a great flavoring and not only for baked goods!) and it stays a very long time, you might just get really lucky and it may ferment and begin turning into dark rum!
Thanks Bill! 🙂
Why not just buy brown sugar that is unprocessed. White sugar has had all the goodness, stipped from it. If you try unrefined brown sugar or sucanat is has almost a malty flavor that is incredible. I guess if your in a bind and dont already have brown sugar this would be acceptable but not a substitute. just my humble opinion.
You can keep your brown sugar from getting rock hard by placing a cracker in it too.
You do realize that this is has nothing to do with natural brown sugar or that it’s not nearly as healthy as natural brown sugar, right?
The process is: you have a sugar cane, from it you can make molasses, dark brown sugar, mascavado, demerara, light brown sugar.. naturally. Only bleaching and refining this can you get white sugar! Think about it, if it was originally dark brown, it must go through some chemicals to get it snow white. So do yourself a favor and buy the original brown sugar instead of going through this process, it’s only similar in color! Look it up!
Yes, Constanca, I do realize that it is not natural brown sugar. Thanks so much for pointing that out so nicely. 🙂
I didn’t realize that sugar in the first place was “healthy”. I am pretty sure that whether you are using brown or white sugar you are still ruining your teeth and eating items that aren’t good for your body. Just sayin’….
All I can tell you is that my baked goods come out wonderful using this method, and if anyone is out of brown sugar at home, but have white this is a wonderful quick way to substitute.
I wounder if you couldn’t get the same taste to your baked goods by adding a little extra molasses to the store bought brown sugar? I’m just playing the devils advocate and saying that you may be adding more molasses back in than would normally be taken out to make a 5lb bag of sugar. Also even though sugar is generally considered bad, brown sugar is usually considered less bad since it isn’t processed as much.
Thanks for the idea, Karrie! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened my cabinet to make cookies (usually late at night, to be delivered the next day!) and have discovered that I was out or almost out of brown sugar. (Where DOES that stuff go??) This is a great way to get out of a pinch!
One of your readers posted about a bread slice in with their brown sugar to keep it moist, which is what I have done for the longest time, but I sometimes end up with crumbs in the sugar. I haven’t tried it yet, but I read on Pinterest that you can put marshmallows in with brown sugar to help it stay moist. I just thought I’d pass the idea along for your readers. Thanks again!
One very quick way to moisten up a container of dried brown sugar is to add a slice or two of peeled apple to it. In a few hours it is moist and usable. I imagine it would mold if left in the container longer than a day or so.
I am excited about trying this! I would think this would be healthier, or just as healthy as regular brown sugar, because even though the white sugar has the nutrients stripped, the molasses does not, so you are adding vitamins and minerals back in. Either way, it is a great “helpful hint” for when you are out of brown sugar.
So many people I’ve told about making your own brown sugar.
Husband of the lady I shared it with, said, “What did you do to these Chocolate Chip cookies? There are the best you’ve ever made!” Funny, all she did was just make up some homemade brown sugar and used it in the recipe. She said, she is going to do that from now on.
I’m really excited about this because we are moving to Central America to work at a children’s home. Their brown sugar is nothing like ours (dry). It should be much easier to pack some molasses than to pack a supply of brown sugar. Thank you for the tip.
This doesn’t seem like it would be more cost effective than just buying the brown sugar. Molasses is expensive. And as mentioned before, you are basically adding what was taken out. I think it would be good for when you’re in a pinch, but that’s it.