# Baking with Muscovado sugar vs. Brown sugar



## colleens

I have been wondering if I can simply replace dark brown sugar in any baking recipe with muscovado sugar.  Since dark brown sugar is really white, granulated sugar which has the natural molasses stripped out and then put back on, why not go with the natural stuff which doesn't have molasses stripped out?  Is the water/molasses content or texture difference going to effect the baking and outcome of the recipe?
TIA


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## kokopuffs

Imho sounds like Msugar might be more strongly flavored that dark brown sugar. In the future I plan to try this stuff in curing my own bacon. Here's a link to the stuff which I will order shortly. It contains MORE NUTRIENTS.

Navigate around this link, also.


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## boar_d_laze

Brown sugar, even commercial brown sugar, is nothing more than molasses than white sugar. You can make your own brown sugar yourself by mixing molasses with white sugar. 1 tbs of molasses to 3 tbs of white sugar is extremely dark brown sugar, while 1 tbs of molasses to 7 tbs of white sugar is fairly light.

When you consider how poorly commercial brown sugar stores, what a pain it is to measure and so on, making it _ad hoc_ makes sense. To me anyway, I've given up buying the ready-made.

Muscovado sugar is less refined than white sugar, but not molasses. Muscovado tastes a lot like brown sugar -- so much so that there's little need to use muscavado for almost any baking purpose. Muscovado is also somewhat difficult to work with because it's so coarse, lumpy and sticky.

It's true that muscavado has more nutritional value than white sugar. But be real. Can you imagine anything more pathetic than eating sugar for vitamins and minerals.

Muscovado is hard to find and expensive.

If you want a very unrefined sugar with similar (but better) taste, far more widely available through most of the U. S. of A., and reasonably priced, try Mexican _piloncillo_. Tastes great, but you'll have to break it up in a food processor. Good for a lot of things, but especially fantastic in coffee and barbecue sauces.

Jaggery is another possibility.

The easiest to find is _turbinado _aka_ sugar in the raw_. It's also very easy to use because it's extremely consistent and available in a variety of textures.

If you substitute anything for anything else, you'll have to taste for sweetness and adjust. None of this stuff equates exactly to the store bought browns; further, the rawer sugars can vary substantially from purchase to purchase.

Hope this helps,
BDL


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## colleens

Thanks.  One of the reasons I wanted to try to use it is not necessarily for nutritional value, but to choose a sugar product which is more natural and not overly processed. I have read that you can make your own brown sugar, and that sounds like a good idea.  I haven't had problems storing brown sugar since I use air tight containers.


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## missyjean

I used Msugar in place of dk brown sugar once. It was delicious but so is the recipe using the dk br sugar. My Msugar was a solid brick. I had to keep it covered with a damp towel overnight to get it in a granular form before I was able to use it.

There is organic brown sugar available too, if you want to try that. I haven't used it yet but will in the future


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## mollyhocky

I like M sugar it is nice


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## msmaple

Thank you for the info, wasn't sure if I would find Muscovado sugar in Canada, but if not I know the alternative.


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## cemab4y

You can get Muscoveda sugar from Amazon.com .  I like to use brown sugar. You can get a special container to store brown sugar. It has a terracotta insert, that you soak in water. You fill the container with brown sugar, and then place the terracotta insert on top. Then you close the lid. The sugar does not cake-up, and you can easily scoop out the sugar anytime. Quite an invention.


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## soonermamma

You don't have to buy a special container to store brown sugar..you can buy a small terra cotta piece that you put in your container.  if you can't find one, just brake a terra cotta pot and use a small piece.  run it under water to get rid of any loose particles from the break..and just put it in your container.  last forever and you will never have hard brown sugar again.


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## cakes4u

I have an airtight container for all my baking ingredients (brown sugar) too, and I never have a problem with it getting hard.


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## jthisso

could you use brown sugar instead of black sugar


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