If you find the pantry empty when you need brown sugar for your favorite home-baked treat, you can make just what you need for the recipe with the sugar you have at home! This is possible because all sugar is made by first extracting juice from sugar beet or sugar cane plants, and from there, many types of sugar can be produced. Through slight adjustments in the process of cleaning, crystallizing and drying the sugar and varying the level of molasses, different sugar varieties are possible.

Learn More: What is molasses?

Molasses is what gives brown sugar its brown color, so you can make your own brown sugar by mixing white granulated sugar with molasses. You’ll have brown sugar in no time made with these two ingredients from your pantry!

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp molasses (more for darker brown sugar)

Directions

1. Pour sugar and molasses into a mixing bowl.
2. Mix in the molasses with a kitchen spoon or your fingers until the sugar and molasses are completely blended. If the brown sugar is too light, you can add more molasses as you mix to get the desired color.
3. Store any unused brown sugar in an airtight container.

And just like that, you have the brown sugar you need to complete your recipe! If you need recipe ideas, you can check out some of our favorites here.

Did you run out of powdered sugar too? Learn how to make it!