How to Make Brown Sugar: Homemade Brown Sugar Recipe

Brown sugar is a sugar product that gets its brown appearance and soft consistency from the addition of controlled amounts of molasses and refined cane sugar. As one of the essential pantry staples for home bakers, brown sugar is an ingredient that gives recipes—like chocolate chip cookies and cinnamon swirl quick bread—their tender, moist texture, and complex caramel flavor.

You can make brown sugar if you have molasses—ideally an unsulfured, mild variety, rather than blackstrap, which has a more intense, bitter flavor. Here are some tips to consider:

1. 1. Adjust the ratio: Generally, the ratio for homemade brown sugar is one tablespoon of molasses for every cup of sugar. Still, you can adjust this depending on whether you need light brown sugar or dark brown sugar for a recipe. A dark brown sugar recipe calls for two tablespoons of molasses for every cup of white sugar.
2. 2. Use other sweeteners: For brown sugar with a different flavor profile, feel free to use other sweeteners besides molasses, like agave or maple syrup.
3. 3. Choose the mixing method: While a food processor will give you the most consistent texture, you don’t need special equipment to make DIY brown sugar. For example, you can massage a plastic bag full of homemade brown sugar with your hands to blend the ingredients and achieve the proper texture. Regardless of the mixing method, it’s important to mix the ingredients until the sugar is an even light-brown or dark-brown color to ensure the full incorporation of the molasses.

The difference between light brown sugar and dark brown sugar lies in the amount of molasses added to the white sugar, resulting in different flavor profiles that benefit different preparations. Dark brown sugar’s deep, almost bitter toffee tones are ideal for gingerbread or baked beans. Alternatively, light brown sugar is an all-purpose sugar that suits a wide range of baked goods.