Old Cookbook

Agave syrup substitute

A clear, thick, sticky liquid, it is made by converting agave syrup substitute to sugars. Two methods are used to convert the starches to sugars. Treasury decisions under customs and other laws.

Few things are worse than getting halfway through a recipe for the perfect chocolate chip cookie and realizing you’re out of brown sugar. However, there are several practical substitutions you can use in a pinch — many of which you may already have sitting in your cupboard. Here are 7 clever substitutes for brown sugar. And just like that — you have brown sugar. Traditionally, brown sugar is made using a mix of granulated white sugar and molasses. If you don’t have molasses on hand, you can easily swap it out for maple syrup with almost no change to your recipe’s final product.

Coconut sugar is made from the sap of coconut trees. You can easily swap coconut sugar and brown sugar in a 1:1 ratio. Though coconut sugar looks and tastes a lot like brown sugar, it doesn’t hold as much moisture. This can affect the texture of certain baked goods, potentially making them slightly dryer or more dense than intended. To improve the moisture content, try adding a little extra fat, such as butter or oil, to your original recipe. You can also try melting the coconut sugar on a stovetop before adding it to your recipe. Summary Coconut sugar may be evenly swapped for brown sugar, but it can make certain baked goods drier or denser than intended.

With a few simple recipe modifications, honey, maple syrup, or agave nectar are all suitable replacements for brown sugar. Because these substitutions are liquid, you’ll want to take into account how the extra moisture may affect the outcome of your recipe — especially when it comes to baking. You may also want to consider reducing cooking time by a few minutes, as these types of sugar replacements may caramelize more quickly than brown sugar. Summary You can use liquid sweeteners like maple syrup, honey, and agave nectar to replace brown sugar — but you’ll likely need to adjust your recipe. Raw sugars like turbinado or demerara make great brown sugar substitutes, as their naturally light amber colors and mild caramel flavors are similar to the real thing.

In most recipes, you can trade raw sugars for brown sugar in an even proportion without noticing much difference. However, raw sugars are significantly drier and more coarse than brown sugar, which may impact your recipe’s end result. The coarse raw sugar granules don’t always mix into dough or batter as uniformly as brown sugar, leaving behind a grainy texture. This is especially true for low-moisture baked goods or those intended to have a very delicate texture. If you have a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, you can manually grind the sugar crystals into a finer texture that will more easily integrate into your recipe. You can also try partially dissolving the sugar crystals in a small amount of warm liquid — such as melted butter, oil, or water — before adding them to your batter. Summary Raw sugars like demerara or turbinado can be substituted for brown sugar in equal proportions.

Still, because raw sugar crystals are very coarse, they don’t always mix into batters and doughs as uniformly as brown sugar would. However, the molasses and moisture content of muscovado is much higher than that of regular brown sugar. This makes it stickier with a greater tendency for clumping. Muscovado sugar can be traded equally for brown sugar in almost any recipe, but if you’re baking with it, you may want to consider sifting it to remove any clumps before mixing it into your dough or batter. You could also try using an electric mixer and adding in the muscovado a little at a time to improve its integration into your recipe. Summary Muscovado is a minimally refined dark brown sugar that can be used as a regular brown sugar substitute. It’s stickier than brown sugar, so it may require some extra work to mix it into your recipe — especially if you’re using it for baking.