Homemade Brown Sugar (You’ll Never Buy Brown Sugar Again)

Homemade brown sugar is so easy you don’t really need a recipe, but that’s not going to stop me from walking you through it. And you’ll never want to buy store-bought again because of how cost-effective and delicious the homemade version is. It’s the easiest baking “hack” you can try, and it reaps so many rewards.

Ingredients

1 c. granulated sugar
1-2 tbsp. molasses

Instructions

1. Pour your granulated sugar into a medium mixing bowl and drizzle your molasses on top.

2. Using a fork, stir the molasses into the sugar for 1-2 minutes until it begins to disperse throughout the sugar granules.

3. Once it’s reached a point when stirring alone isn’t spreading it much anymore (see video to the right for how it should look), use the fork to repeatedly press down on the mixture. You want to press the molasses and sugar together until it combines fully.

4. After a few minutes, your brown sugar will be ready. Simply store it in an air-tight container and label it with the date you made it for future reference. (I write the date on a small piece of tape and stick it on the container.)

Tips

1. The amount of molasses you add determines whether you end up with light brown sugar or dark brown sugar. The more molasses, the darker your end product.

2. For the easiest molasses pour, spritz your measuring spoon with nonstick spray. It will help it glide out without much sticking, and the very small amount of nonstick spray won’t alter or affect your brown sugar.

3. This “recipe” can be scaled up or down very easily. You can double, triple, or even quadruple it to keep extra homemade brown sugar on hand.

4. For more efficient brown sugar production, especially if making it in larger amounts, you can dump the sugar and molasses into a food processor and blitz it until combined. Make sure to scrape the sides every few pulses, as the molasses will stick to the sides some in the beginning. Even still, this is a much faster route than doing it by hand.*

*Video of the food processor method can be found here.