Imagine my surprise when I came across a recipe for brown sugar and found out it was only TWO INGREDIENTS:

Sugar & Molasses

That’s it. That’s all you use. I felt so dumb. Here I was trying to store bags of the stuff and I find out I can MAKE it from two simple ingredients. Even better, those two ingredients happen to be more shelf-stable alone than when they are combined into brown sugar. (In case you’re wondering, the sugar companies aren’t making a fortune off us buying brown sugar. If you pay retail price for your sugar and molasses at the grocery store, you can make brown sugar for about 15¢ less than it costs to buy a bag. If you buy your ingredients in bulk you can save even more.)

So here’s how you do it:

To make DARK Brown Sugar

• 3 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses

To make LIGHT Brown Sugar

• 4 cups Sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses

Dump the ingredients in your KitchenAid like this:

Now turn it on and let it mix…

Keep mixing….

After 2 minutes you have brown sugar! However your brown sugar will have a heavy molasses smell and it won’t immediately taste the same as the bagged brown sugar. Let your mixture sit for a couple of days and it will soon taste the exact same as any bagged brand except just ever so slightly better because it is fresh! If you want to save electricity, the mixing can easily be done by hand with a mixing bowl and a wooden spoon. Children love to help but they will eat (and spill) a good fourth of it negating all your savings and actually costing you money because now you have to use cleaning supplies to clean up their mess… Still, this is a great recipe to know because now you’ll never run out of brown sugar again!

Tips on Storing  Molasses:

Molasses can last a long, long time or it can go moldy. To store it you need to keep it in a cool, dark place with the lid screwed on tightly. Some people feel that keeping an opened jar in the fridge keeps it fresh (and it will for a couple years) while others keep open jars on their pantry shelves. I’ve had open jars on the shelf for a year and a half between gingerbread cookie baking sessions and it has been just fine. Heat and humidity cause mold growth on molasses and since we have plenty of all three in Houston (counting the mold), I’d suggest keeping your food storage molasses somewhere high, dry, dark and cool.