You Can Quickly Make Brown Sugar With 2 Ingredients Already In Your Kitchen
How many times have you reached for the brown sugar in your pantry only to find it’s basically turned into brick? Or maybe you’re craving a recipe that includes it, but don’t have any on hand. Before taking a trip to the grocery store, you can make your own with two other kitchen staples!
Jocelyn Delk Adams, author of Grandbaby Cakes: Modern Recipes, Vintage Charm, Soulful Memories (Buy on Amazon, $18.38), recently shared the helpful tip on her Instagram page. All you need is a teaspoon of molasses and a cup of regular white sugar. Simply use your hands to combine them until you have plenty golden brown sugar ready to bake with!
Take a look at how easy it is:
Aside from coming in handy when you run out of brown sugar, we can see this replacing the need to buy it pre-made. Think about it: The sugar can’t harden and turn into a brick if you just quickly make it from scratch for each recipe. Plus, considering molasses is budget-friendly (Buy at Walmart, $3.24) and a little goes goes a long way, it might end up saving you money!
If you make a bit more than you need, the experts at Food52 share how to keep it from hardening or soften it back up if it does turn into a brick. First, make sure you’re storing it in an airtight container, like the OXO Good Grips POP Container (Buy on Amazon, $12.95). That goes for brown sugar you buy from the store, too, not just the kind you make yourself. They describe those boxes they come in as “downright irresponsible, nonsensical, just plain stupid” — because the second air seeps into them, the sugar will start to clump.
For extra protection against hardening, Food52 says you can add things like a marshmallow, slice of white bread, or slice of apple to your brown sugar container to provide moisture. Terra cotta brown sugar savers, like this adorable Fox Run Terracotta Brown Sugar Bear Keeper and Saver (Buy on Amazon, $13.17), also work great to keep moisture locked in.
If you forget to take any of those precautions, you can easily soften brown sugar back up again by putting it in a bowl, covering it with a damp paper towel, and zapping it in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Now you’ll always have some delicious brown sugar ready to use in yummy baked goods — like our favorite 3-ingredient peanut butter cookies!
