What Is Brown sugar and How Can I Use It?

If brown sugar has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 4,571 recipes to try it in.

What is brown sugar?

Brown sugar is white sugar coated or cooked with molasses, and that molasses is the whole story. It is what makes the sugar damp and clumpy and gives it the butterscotch smell when you open the bag.

Light brown sugar carries about 3.5 percent molasses; dark brown runs closer to 6.5 percent. That is a small difference on paper and a real one on the tongue. Light is gentle and caramel-ish; dark is fuller, almost toffee, with a faint bitterness behind the sweetness.

The molasses does more than flavor. It holds water, so brown sugar bakes moister and chewier than white, and it browns faster and deeper in the oven.

Baking With Brown Sugar

Swap brown sugar for white in a cookie and you get a softer, chewier result with deeper color and a hint of caramel. That is why so many chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies lean on it.

The molasses is also slightly acidic, so it reacts with baking soda and helps the dough lift.

When you cream brown sugar with butter, work it a touch longer than you would white. The crystals are softer and damper, so they aerate the butter a little less efficiently, and a rushed creaming step leaves you with flat cookies.

For toffee depth front and center, reach for dark. A dessert like Adam's Sticky Toffee Pudding lives on dark brown sugar, and using light there flattens the whole thing.

Beyond the Cookie Jar

Brown sugar is just as at home in savory cooking, where its job is to round off sharp and salty edges. A spoonful in a tomato sauce or a pot of Amazing Chilli Con Carne softens acidity without reading as sweet.

It is also the backbone of barbecue. Rubs and sauces lean on it because the molasses caramelizes into a sticky, mahogany glaze, and the sugar helps a bark form. You see that at work in Finger Lickin' Pickens' Sauce and on a fillet of Firecracker Grilled Salmon.

It glazes vegetables and ham too, the way it does over Sweet Brown Sugar Glazed Baby Carrots.

The mistake to avoid is high, dry heat. Because brown sugar browns faster than white, a sugary rub under a broiler or in a screaming pan scorches into bitterness before the food is done. Keep the heat moderate, or add the sugar late.

Substitutes

Out of brown sugar? Make your own. Stir 1 tablespoon of molasses into 1 cup of granulated sugar for light brown, or 2 tablespoons for dark.

It is the real thing, because that is exactly how commercial brown sugar is made.

In a pinch you can use white sugar straight, cup for cup. You lose the moisture and the caramel note, so expect a crisper, paler result. Fine for many recipes, noticeable in cookies.

Light and dark brown swap for each other one to one; you are only adjusting how much molasses flavor and color you get. Coconut sugar also subs cup for cup with a similar caramel tone, though it stays drier in the dough.

Buying and Storing

Both light and dark keep on most shelves, so buy by the dish. Light suits everyday baking and a clean caramel note; dark is for when you want molasses to show, as in gingerbread or barbecue.

Brown sugar's one real failure is drying into a brick. The molasses moisture evaporates and the crystals lock together, which is what turns a soft bag into a hammer-and-chisel job.

To soften a hardened bag, seal it overnight with a slice of bread or a marshmallow tucked inside; the sugar pulls moisture back out of them. In a hurry, microwave the sugar next to a damp paper towel in short bursts, then break it up while it is warm.

Sealed and kept from air, brown sugar lasts indefinitely. It has no real expiry; it just hardens.

One last thing, because it trips people up constantly. Brown sugar must be packed firmly into the cup, which is what recipes assume. A packed cup runs about 220 grams; scoop it loose and you can come up short by a fifth or more, and the bake tells on you.

Types of brown sugar

Specific kinds of brown sugar and the recipes that use them.

Brown sugar, light

Light brown sugar is the default. When a recipe just says "brown sugar" with no qualifier, this is what it means, and it is the jar you should reach for as your everyday all-purpose brown sugar.

It carries about 3.5 percent molasses, which is the low end of the brown sugar range. That gives it a gentle, rounded caramel note rather than a bold one, so it sweetens and adds a little chew without taking over the flavor.

Use it anywhere a recipe is unspecific: cookies, quick breads, oatmeal, a streusel topping, or a glaze where you want warmth without a heavy molasses edge. It is the one that disappears politely into a Ultimate Coffee Cake or batch of Platinum Blondies instead of announcing itself.

For the molasses percentages, packing, storage, and substitutes that apply to both colors, see brown sugar.

Brown sugar, dark

Dark brown sugar is the bolder sibling. It carries about 6.5 percent molasses, roughly double what light brown holds, and that extra molasses is the whole reason to choose it.

The flavor runs deeper: a real toffee and molasses note with a faint bitterness behind the sweetness, not the gentle caramel of light brown. The extra molasses also brings noticeably more moisture, so it packs damper and bakes a touch softer.

Reach for it when you want that depth to show. Gingerbread leans on it, as in Gingerbread Men Refrigerator Dough, and it gives backbone to rich chewy cookies and to a smoky pot of baked beans like Karen's Infamous Baked Beans.

You can use it in place of light brown anywhere for a bolder result; you are only dialing the molasses up, along with the color and moisture that ride with it.

For packing and storage, plus the substitute list shared by both colors, see brown sugar.

Demerara sugar

Demerara is a coarse cane sugar with large, hard, amber crystals and a light molasses note. It takes its name from the Demerara region of Guyana, though most jars today come from elsewhere. The crystals are bigger and drier than turbinado, with a firmer crunch.

That dryness and size are what make it a finishing sugar. Sprinkle it over muffins, scones, or shortbread before baking and the crystals hold their shape through the oven, leaving a sparkling, crackly top instead of melting into the dough.

Nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find brown sugar: Brown sugar is usually found in the baking supplies section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Brown sugar is a member of the Sweets US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

Amount	Weight
1 cup, packed packed	220 grams
1 cup, unpacked unpacked	145 grams
1 tsp brownulated	3 grams
1 tsp packed packed	4 grams
1 tsp unpacked unpacked	3 grams

What Is Brown sugar and How Can I Use It?

Key Points