It's easier and cheaper than you think. Make it at home and impress your friends! And if you use blackstrap molasses, it adds (delicious) iron to your diet.
- For light brown sugar, use 2.5 tsp of molasses per 1 cup of sugar
- For dark brown sugar, use 1 tblsp of molasses per 1 cup of sugar
2) Add to a mixer (or mix by hand):
3) It takes 4 minutes in my Kitchen Aid to turn in to this (with stopping 2 minutes in to scrap the bowl):
Let's run the numbers!
*This is potentially some fuzzy math because it's somewhat hard to convert cups to pounds. And my Bachelors degree is in Criminal Justice and Political Science, so I was more focused on the humanities and social sciences classes during college. Sue me. Or don't...my Crm-J degree will take you down!
10 lbs Organic evaporated cane juice from Costco - $8.69
2 cups of sugar equals approximately 1 pound, which makes it $.869 per pound. Would you believe I
actually busted out the calculator to figure that out. :head desk:
I use 3 cups of sugar to fill my brown sugar jar (that sounds pervy), so $.869 x 1.5 = $1.3035
16 oz of Organic blackstrap molasses - $5.69
1 fluid tblsp = .5 oz
16 oz = 32 tblsps
$5.69/32 = $.117 per oz
I use 3 tblsp of molasses for my recipe, so 3 x .117 = $.53
So, my 3 cups (1.5 lbs) of organic homemade brown sugar comes out to $1.84 or $1.22 per pound.
The non-organic stuff I was buying at Costco was actually cheaper at $1.09 a pound. But, compare it to $6.50 (on sale) for 2 pounds of organic brown sugar, and I'm saving about $.40 a pound. That's not "gettin' rich" money, but it something; especially considering how much I like to bake.
But more than anything, I will never run out of brown sugar because I always have regular sugar and molasses in my house. Additionally, I'm not going through plastic packaging every 6 weeks buying more brown sugar.
I did this one time to make some chocolate chip cookies and I must've used too much molasses, because they tasted a lot like gingerbread crossed with chocolate chip cookies! It is good to know how to substitute with ingredients you have on hand!
ReplyDeleteI usually just add the white sugar to the mixer when I'm baking, and add the molasses separately. It still tastes like brown sugar, and then I don't have to worry about making it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, mini-rant: apparently most brown sugars are made that way these days. It used to be that brown sugar was less refined, but now they are usually "painted sugars".
OMG - DH has Dark Brown Sugar on the list, Organic Brown Sugar is cheaper than Dark Brown Organic Brown Sugar, do you think I even though to add more molases? I have tons of that lying around (my Oma used Molases never sugar or Honey so I grew up with it in barrels).
ReplyDeleteI would try adding a few tsp per cup and test it out to see how you like it. I always try to keep in mind when I'm cooking you can always add more, but it's hard to fix it if you add TOO much! Try around with it, and see how you like it. ;-D
ReplyDeleteSarah
I didn't know you could do this? Pretty neat.
ReplyDeleteIf your homemade brown sugar is $1.22 a pound and the organic brown sugar (on sale) is $6.50 for 2 pounds then you are saving significantly more than 40 cents. The store price is $3.25 a pound so you are saving over $2. I think that makes this a great deal.
ReplyDeleteI usually just add the molasses into the recipe but this would be perfect for things like oatmeal where we'd like to have brown sugar. Also, I didn't know that Costco carried evap cane juice - can't wait to pick some up my next trip.
Is the molasses amounts also good if you don't use organic with sugar?
ReplyDeleteIf you don't use organic sugar is the molasses amount going to be the same for reg sugar?
ReplyDeleteYep!
ReplyDeleteDo you make your own sugar for the cane juice? Do you have a post about that?
ReplyDeleteNope, it's already made for you in a crystal form. I get it at Costco. You can see what it looks like here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E9WB8G?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B000E9WB8G&linkCode=xm2&tag=thisb02-20
DeleteAWESOME. Thanks for this!
ReplyDelete