Brown sugar

Brown sugar is soft, moist sugar with a caramel or toffee flavor. Most brown sugar sold today is white sugar with some molasses (treacle in the UK) mixed back in. Light brown sugar has less molasses and a gentle taste. Dark brown sugar has more, with a deeper, slightly bitter flavor and more moisture. It makes cookies chewy and gives sauces and glazes color.

Why it works

Molasses holds on to water, so brown sugar keeps baked goods moist and soft for longer. It is also slightly acidic, which lets it react with baking soda to help a cookie rise and spread. The molasses also browns more quickly through caramelization and other browning reactions, so brown sugar cookies go darker in the same time.

How to use it

The names change by country:

• Light brown sugar and dark brown sugar in the US and Canada.
• Soft light brown sugar and soft dark brown sugar in the UK and Ireland. Soft means the moist kind, as opposed to dry, crunchy demerara.
• Muscovado, light or dark, is a less refined brown sugar with more natural molasses and a stronger flavor. It is sold in the UK, Australia and Sweden, and can stand in for brown sugar, with a richer result.
• Farinsocker or brun farin in Sweden, which is close to light brown sugar. Darker Swedish recipes use mörkt muscovadosocker.

American recipes measure brown sugar packed. A packed US cup weighs about 210 to 220 g. If no type is named, use light.

Substitutes

• Light brown sugar: 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar plus 1 tablespoon molasses. Mix with a fork until even.
• Dark brown sugar: the same, with 2 tablespoons molasses.
• In a pinch, white sugar works in most recipes. Cookies will be crisper and paler.

How to store it

Keep it in an airtight container. If it goes hard, put a slice of bread or a damp paper towel in the container overnight, or warm it for 20 seconds in the microwave with a cup of water beside it.

Common mistakes

• Measuring it loose in a cup. You get too little.
• Swapping demerara for soft brown sugar in a cookie dough. The crystals do not dissolve the same way.
• Leaving the bag open. It dries into a brick within days.

In recipes

You will see "1 cup packed light brown sugar", "100 g soft dark brown sugar" and "1 dl farinsocker".