Monday, August 24, 2009
make your own brown sugar
There are few baked goods and/or frostings not improved by the addition of brown sugar but if your kitchen is anything like mine — that is, woefully understocked most of the time — you’ve probably needed it before and not had it. Fortunately, you can make your own with a combination of molasses and regular sugar. To make one cup of light brown sugar, combine 1 cup granulated sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoons molasses; to make one cup of dark brown sugar, combine 1 cup granulated sugar with 1/4 cup molasses; the food processor works great for this, if you have one. Now bring on those brown sugar shorties!
GOOD LORD HOW DID I NOT KNOW YOU HAVE A TIPS SECTION?
awesome! thanks.
I read your blog regularly, and this morning (yes, Thanksgiving morning) I was once again happy that I do. I was preparing my ham and reached in the cabinet for the brown sugar and came up empty. I ALWAYS have brown sugar! I grabbed a bag of powdered sugar yesterday because I wasn’t sure I had any in the pantry, but I didn’t even consider the possibility of being out of brown. Well after I cussed a little I remembered this post, grabbed the molasses (which I also ALWAYS have, so I guess I was lucky to find it in the pantry today) and my ham is currently smelling up the house. My whole family thanks you! Hope you have a wonderful holiday.
Amy
count me in with nina. i feel like the dumbest person alive for not realizing that you have a tips section, and even better, a tips RSS feed. now i can have two SK RSS feeds. my life suddenly has meaning! [i wouldn't say no to an edible-cheek RSS either, as that kid of yours is beyond adorable and hearkens me back all of 11 months when mine was that small!]
all hail the smitten kitchen.
Okay, I too did not know you had a tips section! Thank goodness for slow days at work, and your amazingness. Thank you!
Sorry to be a broken record here but, neither did I realize that you had a TIPS section. Deb: WOW!
Incredible.
That there February 25 comment is spam!
Hey, Deb, I just made up a big batch (a pound or so?) of brown sugar to refill our brown sugar container. Rather than assembling the blender (the food processor’s packed away), I used my hands to mix it up — it works perfectly that way.
oh, cant thank you enough for this tip:)
Brilliant! I ran out of brown sugar and didn’t feel like making a trip to the grocery store just for it. Fortunately I had a smidge of molasses left in a jar.
I made dark brown sugar as per your measurements above, and I found it was too brown, if that makes sense. It was darker and moister than the store-bought kind. I think I’ll just aim for light brown next time. (Useful tip though, it saved me when I went to make cinnamon buns!)
Also – the stand mixer, fitted with the whip and set on the lowest speed, does a good job of mixing large quantities of sugar and molasses.
IMO, this tastes better than regular brown sugar. We had to make this once for peanut butter cookies, and now I use the molasses/sugar instead of brown sugar every time I make those cookies. Husband is baking up a batch now, delish!
Any word on how well this keeps?
I just made over two cups of this, and a bowl and a fork worked beautifully for lazy old me who did not want to get out the food processor or stand mixer for just this. I may never buy brown sugar again. that bottle of ‘grandma’s molasses’ lasts forever!