Last Updated on 22nd December 2021 by
Brown sugar has a look and a flavour to it that takes it useful in recipes for cookies, brownies and a variety of baked goods and desserts. Dark brown sugar is even richer and browner and might not be available in stores near you. Did you know that you can make your own brown sugar at home. It’s surprisingly easy too, with just a couple of ingredients and a couple of minutes.
You want to be careful about the brown sugar you buy at the store. I found out that some of it is made with food colouring or artificial stuff that is even less healthy for you than actual brown sugar. Sometimes the brown look is processed and fake, and I try to avoid that. I like the idea of making things on my own at home when I can, especially when they are as easy as how to make dark brown sugar.
There are a few different way to make dark brown sugar, and almost all of them are simple. I want to share with you a few of these methods so that you have some options. Maybe you will prefer one way over another or maybe you will want to test some of these methods out as you try to make your own.
How to Make Light Brown Sugar Dark
I think the easiest way to get dark brown sugar, so rich and tempting in appearance, is to use light brown sugar. You start with that base and it is very easy to turn the light brown sugar into dark brown sugar.
You just need a cup of brown sugar and a tablespoon of molasses. The kind of molasses you use is up to you. It doesn’t have to be prepared, sweet molasses, since the sugar is already sweet, because it’s sugar, after all. Just put them into a mixing bowl and combine with the electric
The new dark brown sugar should be kept in an airtight container. This should keep out light, air, and pests to preserve it. Store like you would regular sugar and enjoy the rich look and taste that dark brown sugar offers.
Do you see how easy it was to make? That’s just one way you can do it, and there are some others that I want to share.
How to Make White Sugar into Dark Brown Sugar
You can start with white sugar and end up with dark brown sugar, if you know the method. It’s just a little more time consuming than the previous method because you are going up another order of lightness in the sugar to start with. Did you know that sugar is naturally brown, and it is usually refined to make it white?
This process is so common that most brown sugar you see in the store is usually made from refined white sugar. So, the process it went through was to start out as brown sugar, refine it to white, and then add molasses or other ingredients to make it brown again. That seems so circular, but for many companies that sell brown sugar, this process is completely reasonable.
To make your own, you just need to turn white sugar into brown sugar. To skip from how to make light brown sugar into dark brown sugar, you can add more molasses to your white sugar. So, take a single cup of white sugar (of your choice) and two tablespoons of molasses. Once again, choose the molasses you want for this. Remember that sweetened molasses like sorghum molasses will make your sugar even sweeter. Mix them together thoroughly to get dark brow sugar.
If it comes out too light and your sugar isn’t dark brown, then you didn’t add enough molasses or you have too much white sugar. That’s okay, though it is an easy fix. You know how to make dark brown sugar from light, and that’s just adding some more molasses. You may need to add in another tablespoon of molasses or a half tablespoon, and then presto! You’ve got dark brown sugar on your hands.
Now you know how to make dark brown sugar with molasses and how to make it from either light brown or white sugar. You have a few options now when you want to use some dark brown sugar. You can adjust the recipe to suit your needs so that you only make as much as you need, but dark brown sugar will keep for a long time. You don’t have to worry about it going bad, really.
How the Process Works
What a lot of people don’t realise about molasses is that it comes from sugar. It is a byproduct of sugar, so it mixes back into sugar nicely creating a kind of sugar we all know- brown sugar. So, know you know how to make light brown sugar from dark brown sugar using molasses, and you do want to be carful about using too much. Too little brown sugar can be corrected.
That’s no big problem at all, because you can always add more. If you mix in too much, though, and your sugar looks too dark or too molasses-y, you can simply add in some white sugar and mix that to smooth it out. That will help you to adjust the sugar to your needs.
I talked about how much how much molasses to make dark brown sugar, which is a tablespoon for each cup of light brown sugar or two tablespoons for each cup of white sugar. That formula should work well for you no matter which brand of sugar you are using and what kind of light brown or white sugar you use. They go by different names, but they should all mix with molasses in about the same way regardless.
The process of turning white sugar to light brown sugar into dark brown sugar is simple, as you can see. All you are doing is mixing in molasses, and that is the same process used at the sugar factory when they create dark brown sugar. You aren’t doing anything different, and if you wanted to know how to make dark brown sugar into light brown sugar just like the food manufacturers do, now you know.
You have their secrets for turning the sugar darker, and you don’t have to pay as much for the end result. This method can save you money and can help you out if you don’t have the right kind of sugar on hand. Why go to the grocery and by a new bag of sugar when you can make small quantities of light brown or dark brown sugar on your own? I hope this guide makes the process easy enough for you so that you can feel confident to make dark brown sugar or light brown sugar on your own.
I'm Pauline, a mother of four grown children, my passion for cooking stemmed from the joy i get cooking for my family. I love to try new dishes, especially when dining out but creating and sharing my own recipes is my favourite thing to do!