Can You Substitute Brown Sugar for White Sugar in Baking?
Written by: Indiana Sugars
Whether you're a seasoned baking professional or new to the field, you'll quickly realize just how important white sugar is as an ingredient.
There may be various reasons why you need a white sugar substitute. Sometimes you just don't have enough of it on hand and you need to act quickly. In other cases, you may be dealing with someone who has a dietary restriction of some kind. That leads to the question - can you substitute brown sugar for white sugar in baking? In what situations is this appropriate, and in which would it be a potential disaster?
The answers to questions like those are straightforward, but they do require you to keep a few key things in mind along the way.
Brown Sugar vs. White Sugar: What’s the Difference?
Obviously, the most immediate difference between brown sugar and white sugar is the color. Beyond that, you'd be forgiven for assuming that they're mostly the same. They do share a similar level of sweetness, after all.
But in reality, they differ in texture and especially in composition. White sugar is made by processing and refining sugar cane. Brown sugar, on the other hand, has the molasses added back into it during processing. This is what gives it its unique look and flavor profile.
How White Sugar Impacts Baking
White sugar impacts baking in a wide range of different ways, which is why when most recipes call for it, they do so specifically.
White sugar can help give something a crisp texture that is particularly helpful in cookies and baking. White sugar also helps with moisture retention, which is why you commonly find it in certain types of baked goods like muffins. White sugar can even help impact the color of your baked goods, even though you would think that something that is "white" wouldn't have much of an influence at all. White sugar interacts with heat in a way that allows it to enhance the color of cookies and cakes especially.
How Brown Sugar Impacts Baking
Brown sugar, on the other hand, has a higher moisture content than white sugar. This is because of the presence of molasses. Any baked goods that you make with brown sugar will typically be a bit softer and chewier. If that is your intention with whatever it is you're trying to bake, it's a good quality to have.
Naturally, brown sugar also produces a darker color in a lot of the baked goods that you create. It can give things like cakes a more "caramelized" look. This, along with a richer flavor, gives everything you create its own distinct feel.
Light vs. Dark Brown Sugar
If you've decided to use brown sugar as a baking ingredient, know that there are two main types for you to choose from.
Light brown sugar, as the name implies, only has about 3.5% molasses content. This means that it is lighter, and the flavor is a bit more subtle. Dark brown sugar, however, has about 6.5% molasses content. This means it will be darker and you'll really start to taste that molasses flavor pop out over all the other ingredients you're working with.
How Substituting Brown Sugar for White Sugar Affects Baking
If you're working on a recipe that calls for white sugar, but you only have brown (or vice versa), know that you can substitute them. You'll just have to know what you're getting into beforehand.
When you substitute brown sugar for white sugar, you'll have a noticeable change to not only the texture, but the flavor, and color of your baked goods as well. These changes won't necessarily be different - they'll be keeping in line with all the elements outlined above. It's just that they won't be easy to hide, so you should be aware of them before you make a decision one way or the other. They will impact the finished product.
Substitution Tips and Ratios
When substituting brown sugar for white sugar in baking, you could always do a 1:1 substitution. This means that you'll just add the same amount of brown sugar that you would white sugar. However, you'll probably want to reduce the liquid in the recipe by at least one to two tablespoons for every cup of brown sugar that you use. This is to account for the increased moisture content.
Substituting Brown Sugar for Powdered Sugar
While substituting brown sugar
for powdered sugar can be done, it isn't a perfect swap and it will result in noticeable texture differences to your finished items.
Substituting Brown Sugar for Coconut Sugar
When substituting brown sugar for coconut sugar, the major difference you'll notice is the flavor. Coconut has a mild, slightly earthy flavor and if you substitute brown sugar, you'll have that shift towards molasses instead.
Substituting Brown Sugar for Turbinado Sugar
Brown sugar has a much finer texture than turbinado sugar, so when using it as a substitute the biggest impact you'll notice has to do with the texture itself.
We're Your Source for Bulk Brown Sugars
At Indiana Sugars, we pride ourselves on our ability to get your sweetener orders to you on time and in full. Everything we do is an action taken with a sense of purpose - one that acknowledges the extraordinary needs of our customers while taking the opportunity to exceed their expectations every step of the way.
When you call in an order, you can rest easy knowing that we'll respond quickly. We deliver to most customers within 24 hours if they're within a 300-mile radius of our location. This is even after we've taken the time to get to know your business and learn what's important to you. We also test everything we ship out in our own laboratory because we know how important freshness is to you and we want you to know that it's important to us, too.
If you have any additional questions about a potential sugar substitute for baking that you'd like to discuss with someone in a bit more detail, or if you'd just like to speak to someone about your own needs before placing your next order, please don't delay -
contact the team at Indiana Sugars today.
