You decide it is time to make a sweet treat for your family. You eagerly get all of your ingredients together. The eggs are cracked, the baking soda and whole wheat flour are mixed. You reach for your brown sugar and your heart sinks. Your brown sugar isn’t so brown-sugary anymore.
“Where’re the hammer?” You think because come hell or high water these cookies are going to be made, hard clump of brown sugar or not. You get your hammer and start pounding away. Next thing you know there’s a hole in your wall and your family is getting ready to commit you to the mental institution. Yep, it has happened to the best of us. Right? Right.
Ok maybe the hammer and mental institution thing was all a figment of my imagination (or was it?), but the brown sugar thing was not. Brown sugar just doesn’t stay fresh. You open the package, use it once, and the rest is pretty much garbage by the time you decide to go all cookie exchange on everyone again.
Can we just take a moment to discuss what rock I have been under my whole life? I went to Baking and Pastry Arts SCHOOL and still had no idea brown sugar was nothing more then molasses and sugar. Like for reals? YES! Had I just taken a brown sugar package and flipped it over I would have realized there is no mystical brown sugar tree in shuggy-land pooping out bags of sugar that say Domino on the front. Not only that, there is a huge misconception out there (I think!) that brown sugar is LESS processed then white because it is brown and hasn’t been refined. NOT TRUE! Sheesh we are learning a lot today!
I just mentioned brown sugar is just as processed as white sugar because… it is white sugar! Recently I’ve looked for a “better” brown sugar and haven’t been able to find it. This is what prompted me to LOOK AT THE PACKAGE and get to the bottom of this brown sugar mystery. I wanted a brown sugar that was not as processed, and in making my own I got exactly what I was looking for. Now who wants an apple pie?
So I just told you a few reasons making your own brown sugar is better. Now we are on to the best of the bestie reason…..it tastes better! Yes, taking a minute to whizzzz up fresh brown sugar actually creates a tastier suuuuugggg because it hasn’t been sitting in a plastic bag for… well it’s whole entire wee-little brown sugar life. That’s right… it hasn’t had time to sit on a shelf and think of all the important things in life like figuring out kitchen hacks and where stevia comes from. It hasn’t had time to get in fights with other sugars about who is the best and then have it’s lil heart melt when all the other bags get purchased and it didn’t. It hasn’t had time to make the trip to the bargain outlet store because nobody bought it, and sit on another shelf for another few months until lil ol’ betty comes to get it, only to take it home and let it sit some more before it is turned into a lovely batch of cookies. Then it gets to dry up and turn into a clump o’ suuuugggg until it inevitably ends up in a landfill because it was no longer tasty enough for betty. Ok she’s just too old to break it up with a hammer. Sound about right? I… THINK…SO!
But fo’ real… this is life changing and we should all probably just start saving money today *infomercial voice* and making our own because it is better, way better! Ok, life changing is a bit extreme but it’s totally a kitchen hack. And by the way, the word hack kind of makes me cringe.
I used a pretty dark molasses, but you can use any you’d like!
Homemade Brown Sugar
Ingredients:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp molasses
Directions: Put both ingredients in a food processor and whizzz it up for a few seconds and BAM! Your very own Homemade Brown Sugar! I promise Domino is loosing some brown suuuggg stock right about now. 😉
Thank you soooooo much. Now, finally, I can make them in smaller portions. Always gets hard on me.