Golden Caster Sugar

Asked by miracita. Answered on 7th October 2013

Full question

Hello Nigella Team! Some of the recipes on Nigella's website call for golden caster sugar. Here in the US I'm not sure we have such a thing, though I am aware of caster sugar (white) and golden brown sugar. Do you know of a substitute I can use for the golden caster sugar? Please let me know, thanks so much! Mira

Our answer

Golden caster sugar is a fine granulated sugar that is made from unrefined sugar cane or beets. It is popular in the UK for its colour, which is a pale golden brown, and it has a slightly buttery flavour. It is unfortunately fairly unique to the UK. The important point to make is that it is a dry, free-flowing sugar.

In the US, and the rest of the world, the best substitute is regular white caster/superfine sugar. The sweetness of the two sugars is the same and the unrefined element, in our opinion, does not make a big difference to the final dish. In our experience the US sugars labelled as light brown sugar, dark brown sugar or golden brown sugar tend to be slightly moist as they have molasses added and they could adversely affect the recipe. Turbinado or Demerara sugar is an unrefined granulated sugar but the granules are usually too large to be used sucessfully in baking (though the sugar can be sometimes be used for coating or topping cookies and cakes).