Wednesday’s Helping: Brown Sugar

A sweet ingredient to add

We usually use brown sugar to make glazes or add in baking recipes. What distinguishes brown sugar from white sugar is the presence of molasses. Basically, a step or two in the process of making white sugar is excluded and the molasses remains in the sugar, which also gives a brown color to this food item. Conversely, some companies do the reverse and deliberately add molasses to white sugar in order to create a more uniform and smoother brown sugar that dissolves easier in recipes. All brown sugar is a blend of refined sugar and molasses. Look for light to dark varieties of brown sugar. Oh, and yes, darker colored brown sugar contains more molasses than lighter brown sugar. Most of the brown sugar on the market is derived from sugar beets and sugar cane.