The Difference Between Light Brown Sugar and Dark Brown Sugar | Yankee Kitchen
Is there a difference between light brown sugar and dark brown sugar? Does it matter which one you use if the recipe doesn’t specify? Get the answer.
By Leslie Land|Jan 03 2018|
The Difference Between Light Brown Sugar and Dark Brown Sugar | Yankee Kitchen
Credit: Pixabay
The Difference Between Light Brown Sugar and Dark Brown Sugar | Yankee Kitchen
Credit: PixabayCredit: Pixabay The “brown” in these sugars is a carefully designed form of molasses, added at the end of processing (rather than leftover from the beginning, as many people seem to think). It’s essentially a coating, thicker in dark brown sugar and thinner in light brown sugar. The coating adds moisture — brown sugar can contain as much as 35 percent more water than white sugar — and it traps air, so brow sugar is fluffier. That’s why measurements generally specify “packed.” If the recipe doesn’t say which to use, it probably doesn’t matter. If you need to substitute, try to balance the molasses, adding ¼ teaspoon or so per cup. when using light sugar for dark. If the recipe calls for light but dark is all you have, use a packed 2/3 cup dark and 1/3 cup white for every packed cup of light sugar needed.
FAVORITE BROWN SUGAR RECIPES
Brown-Sugar Shortbread Cookies We found this recipe for brown-sugar shortbread in our December 1948 issue and tweaked the proportions to work with contemporary ingredients. Delicious! Bourbon Brown Sugar Steak Tips The beauty of this recipe for bourbon brown sugar steak tips is that you make the savory marinade ahead of time. Easy and delicious! Hartwell Farm Brown Sugar Rolls These brown sugar rolls were a trademark at the Hartwell Farm in Lincoln, MA. The chicken fat may have been the secret, but don’t worry, you can use soft butter instead. Borrowed from the Yankee archives, this post was first published in 2014 and has been updated.
For the 1st time I had this dilemma the other day. I’ve ALWAYS used dark since I mainly use it for baked beans. Now I need to make a sweet potato casserole and pumpkin chiffon pie and like most recipes it doesn’t specify light or dark. Normally, I’d just use whatever I had around the house but I was out. Using common sense I thought light would probably go better with those particular dishes but I wasn’t sure. Gonna go with light in this case. Just a tip: Splenda makes a wonderful brown sugar blend. It’s very hard to find but if you watch calories & sugar or want brown sugar that NEVER clumps or dries out. You only need 1/2 the amount as regular brown sugar and it tastes the same to me. You save money as you’re using less. I had mine for several years and it was soft the whole time. Otherwise, I use the old school Domino boxes.