Bear is helping me write this morning, which mostly entails her attacking my zero waste journal, taking swipes at the keyboard and being generally adorable. We all have our gifts.
Assembling what I’ll need: cane sugar on the left, turbinado on the right.
Speaking of gifts (see what I did there?), it’s the holiday season! And that means baking tons of tasty treats for friends and family because obviously no one should be expected to get through December without riding a constant sugar high. (Trust me, it helps.)
Two key ingredients in all that baking: brown sugar and powdered sugar. And this girl can’t get either in bulk. I started researching homemade options.
It was easy to find “recipes” for each of these things, and neither looked very hard. Eh, what could happen?
Brown Sugar
(SOURCE: Huffingtonpost.com, “Yes, You Can Make Brown Sugar”)
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
Mix together by hand or with an electric mixer until incorporated. Can be used right away or stored for later.
PLOT TWIST: So I decided to just see what other brown sugar recipes were out there, and found THIS ONE from Allrecipes.com that was all, use 1 tablespoon molasses in the ingredient list, but use two tablespoons of molasses for every cup of sugar in the directions. I was all, huh, I wonder if that makes dark brown sugar? So I tried that too.
TRISHA TRIES IT: I think this story is best suited for pictures.
I cup cane sugar, 1 tablespoon molasses.
Less than a minute in.
A little more than a minute in.
Annnnnnd done.
Well, that was fun. And it tasted pretty good. What would happen with 2 tablespoons of molasses to a cup of sugar?
Darker and way more potent.
A side by side comparison!
I did a taste test (with coffee as my pallet cleanser, totally recommend that) and decided the light was too light and the dark was too dark. So I mixed the two. And decided … that it’s still kind of potent, but better (also: I’m used to packaged. This is not packaged). So my advice is to use 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of molasses to each cup of cane sugar. Start small and then taste test. The thing that really got me excited, though, was that it looks just like packaged brown sugar!
That was not the conclusion I came to with the powdered sugar experiment.
Powdered Sugar
(SOURCE: Cookie + Kate, “How to Make Powdered Sugar”)
Use: cane sugar, turbinado sugar, or coconut sugar for best results, but you can even use brown sugar or sucanat sugar (according to rumor).
Measure approximately half as much sugar as you need powdered sugar. Place in blender or food processor and blend until fine and fluffy. The more refined the sugar, the fluffier the powdered sugar (apparently).
Can be used right away or stored for later. You may need to sift the finished powdered sugar to remove clumps and to further fluff that stuff up.
TRISHA TRIES IT: I have both cane and turbinado sugars, so I decided we were going to test out both. I tried the turbinado first.
In the food processor, ready to go.
After a couple of minutes.
After, like, eight minutes or something. I kind of lost track.
I tried sifting it to see if that made it more powdery, but I couldn’t see a difference. So I shrugged my shoulders and tried the cane sugar.
Before.
After several minutes.
I sifted this too, and again, it didn’t seem to make much difference. And neither seemed very powdery, even with extensive running time.
What would happen if I did this in the blender?
Each just in the food processor…
After some time in the blender. I was amazed by how much more “powdery” it got.
So THEN, just for kicks and because we’d come this far, I decided to try the rest of my turbinado in the blender. It was much, much faster to do it this way — only took a couple of minutes — and I was surprised that I could see the sugar “rising” up the sides of the thing as it “got powdered sugar-ed.”
I am all about quick. SOLD!
My advice: Whatever you use, toss that junk in the blender. It’s faster and makes a better product. Incidentally, I can kind of see why they add cornstarch to packaged powdered sugar now — I’ll just bet THAT is what makes it nice and fluffy.
Regardless of my powdered sugar not being an exact replica, I called the whole ordeal a success. And now I have two totally zero waste sugars in my cupboard!
I am incredibly jacked about this!
Ah, but how did they hold up in actual baking action? That, my Simple Year friends, is a question for Wednesday.
I am so glad you kept Bear! And Pearl! Kittens are just so cute..when they are not being totally destructive. Okay they are cute even then which is why we keep them anyway. To be on topic….I have made powdered sugar before but never brown sugar. Can’t wait to read the actual baking edition to see how that goes.
Life is much more fun with two kitties. Pearl seems just as enchanted with the baby as the rest of us — she’s much happier and more playful and even lets us pet her now without scratching or biting. Bear is a miracle worker! (Seriously, I think Pearl saw how we cared for Bear and decided she could trust us after all.) Tonight we had to laugh because Bear finished her helping of soft food quickly and decided it was time to move on to Pearl’s dish — with Pearl still eating, of course — and Pearl just scootched over and let her. I have pictures of their two heads together. Pearl is such a good big sister!
How funny, I just used the same set of instructions to make powdered sugar a few days ago! I went the blender route and was pleasantly surprised. My experience recommends: don’t take the lid off for a long time until the dust settles. Pouf! But mine worked great for baking once the powdered settled. I was so happy to find out that this was possible, since I can’t get powdered sugar in bulk – although I can see why. What a mess it would be!
I have definitely made ‘cheat’s brown sugar’ before, while making the recipe itself, by just adding molasses to the cup measure and then filling the rest with sugar. Not precise, but I think it works.
Great minds, etc. 🙂 I forgot to mention that I had to stuff a towel in the food processor spout because the dust was quite dusty. I’m excited to try it out! Glad to hear it worked for you.
Your cheater’s brown sugar sounds perfectly acceptable and also faster. Once it’s all mixed together, what’s the difference? When I was looking for recipes using brown sugar this evening, I noticed that a lot of the ones I’d expected to call for it — the gingerbreads and spice cakes — call for sugar and molasses. I think you’re on to something!
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I tried this last night with my white cane sugar from Trader Joe’s and it was a bust. I think the granules may have been too big to absorb the molasses. I’m sure it’ll taste the same in baked goods so I’ll use this up and then try again with regular, non-organic sugar I guess. Still appreciate the thorough post!
Oh, that’s a bummer! I’m not familiar with Trader Joe’s cane sugar — I just use C&H, mainly — but yeah, grain size would make a difference. Thanks for the feedback! I like hearing how it goes, even if it’s not successful.
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