All you need is 2 ingredients and 5 minutes to make your own brown sugar at home. This recipe for a brown sugar substitute makes 1 cup (firmly packed) and can be halved, doubled, tripled, or quadrupled! I include notes to make either light or dark variations. Recipe even includes a video!
Prep time: PT5M
Total time: PT5M
Rating
4.98 stars (45 reviews)
Keywords
brown sugar, brown sugar substitute, how to make brown sugar
Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon unsulphured molasses (increase to 2 Tablespoons of molasses if you would like to make dark brown sugar)
Categories
Dessert
Cuisine
American
Steps
Combine sugar and molasses in a mixing bowl.
Use a spatula to work the ingredients together as well as you can. Use the spatula to press any lumps against the side of the bowl and smash them out.
Continue to mix until no lumps remain and the brown sugar is uniform in color.
Store in an airtight container.
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 1 Tablespoon
Calories: 52 kcal
Carbohydrates: 13 g
Fat: 1 g
Sodium: 1 mg
Sugar: 13 g
Reviews
Joy K on 2026-03-19 (5 stars): Super easy substitute that saved me from making a 24-mile round trip to the store. Thank you! I don't even remember why I had the molasses in the first place and worried I'd never find another use for it before it expired.
michael battig on 2026-01-19 (4 stars): I just knew that, if I saved that bottle of molasses, I’d find a use for it. Cheers!
Jo on 2026-01-05 (5 stars): Thank you for saving me an emergency run to the store!! This is great!
Lu on 2025-12-31 (5 stars): Yes brown sugar was made, but um is molasses supposed to smell awful??? 😂 It’s a brand new jar of Grandma’s, and I don’t have much experience with it, but I want to make sure I’m not crazy/ in not using rancid molasses!!
Kym on 2025-12-21 (5 stars): Easy and delicious! No more hard and stale brown sugar!!!
Evan Robish on 2025-10-12 (5 stars): Hey I learned this a while back and it is deep in my mind to come give thanks to those spreading this information. One jar of molasses lasted me a year of baking. And hey I bake goodies for family, friends, coworkers and parishioners. This has truly saved me money. Thank you!
mscoralrose on 2025-09-27 (5 stars): Turns regular sugar into brown sugar in less than 5 minutes! I'm kind of annoyed I didn't know about this sooner, lol. Thanks for sharing!
