Brown Sugar

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Brown Sugar

Brown Sugar
© Denzil Green

Some people think that because Brown Sugar looks less processed it is more healthy. But non, cherie -- it is made by mixing white sugar with molasses, and all you get are the trace nutritional elements in molasses, which are negligible to begin with. See grass skirt suggestion under Nutrition in main sugar entry.

Brown Sugar is moist and clingy because the molasses film on its sugar crystals has about 35 times more water in it than in white sugar. When left exposed to dry air, all this evaporates and becomes rock hard. When resoftened with a piece of dried apple or a Brown Sugar Mouse in the jar, it will go back to as it was.

Brown Sugar is always derived from sugar cane molasses, as no satisfactory way has yet been found of making molasses from sugar beets.

Substitutes for Brown Sugar

3/4 cup white sugar (6 oz / 170g) plus 1/4 cup (2 oz / 60 ml) molasses

Equivalents for Brown Sugar

1 pound = 450g = 3 1/2 cups loose scooped = 2 1/4 cups firmly packed

4 oz = 1/2 cup firmly packed = 115 g
6 oz / 170g = 1 scant cup loosely packed
1 oz / 30g Brown Sugar = 2 tbsp firmly packed
150g = 5 oz = 3/4 cup loosely packed

Storage Hints for Brown Sugar

Store in a sealed container with a Brown Sugar Mouse or a piece of dried fruit such as apple in it. If your Brown Sugar goes rock hard, zap for 10 to 20 seconds in the microwave.
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Also called:
Cassonade (French); Azúcar morena (Spanish)
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