Make Your Own Homemade Brown Sugar

Ever have one of those days when you’re in the middle of making your son and husband’s favorite Zucchini Bread and…….!!!!! There’s no brown sugar left! Well, that was me yesterday. So I decided now was as good a time as any to learn to make my own.

Do you know what the recipe is? Ready? Get your pen and paper out……..Sugar and molasses. That’s it. I don’t think there’s an easier, less complicated recipe on the planet. A typical Starbucks order is longer. So, pour this ingredient into this other ingredient and stir. Seriously??? I felt like I’d been cheated my whole brown sugar-buying life.

But, what exactly is Molasses?

Great question. I have no idea.

Turns out, Molasses (or Black Treacle if you watch The Great British Baking Show) is a thick, dark syrup made during the sugar-making process. First, sugar cane or sugar beets are crushed, and the juice is extracted. The juice is then boiled down to form sugar crystals, which are removed from the liquid. Molasses is the thick, brown syrup left after the sugar has been removed from the juice. This process is repeated several times, and each time a different type of molasses is produced.

But I digress.

So I went about gathering my 2 ingredient list and was ready to embark on this sweet adventure. I poured 3 Cups of white sugar in my bowl. Then I poured 3 Tablespoons of Molasses also into said bowl. I felt like I was on my way to sticking it to The Man!

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Then I stirred it up.

It took a little while since Molasses apparently likes to clump (like 3 whole minutes), but eventually my homemade brown sugar was ready! It was so light and fluffy and ready to be made into Zucchini Bread.

I added a cup of my newly combined homemade brown sugar to my awaiting Zucchini Bread ingredients, and let me tell you – it turned out great! I’ll never buy brown sugar from the store again!

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How Do You Keep Brown Sugar Fresh?

We’ve all been there. You pull out your container or bag of brown sugar from the cupboard, open it up, and it’s hard as a rock. Le Sigh.

Well, a friend of mine told me about this little magic trick to keep brown sugar soft for much longer than normal….’normal’ being like 8 minutes. She told me about this terracotta bear that you wet and put in your brown sugar container, and it apparently keeps it from drying out.

After searching the web, this is what I ended up buying:

• Progressive International Progressive Brown Sugar Container

You just soak the little terracotta disc in water, pop it back into the lid of the container, and fill it with brown sugar. I’ve had mine for at least 6 months and the brown sugar has never been dried up.

• You can also go old school and toss a piece of bread in with your brown sugar, and that will help keep it moist.
• If worse comes to worse, just put your hard as a rock brown sugar chunk in a microwave safe bowl, wet a paper towel and place that over your brown sugar. Then heat it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds, repeating in 10 second intervals until it’s soft again.

What do you use Brown Sugar in?

I usually use mine in said Zucchini Bread, Chocolate Chip Cookies, mostly delicious baked goods, but I’ve been known to throw some in my homemade sweet & spicy dry rub for ribs, sometimes in the glaze for an Easter ham. I’ve even used it in my Loco Moco sauce mixed with soy sauce and sriracha drizzled over Coconut Rice, fried eggs and sautéed Spam recipe – YUM.

How do YOU use Brown Sugar? Give me some ideas in the comment section!

Just for kicks, I added this ridiculously easy Brown Sugar recipe down below 😊