Brown Sugar

Asked by aninditha12. Answered on 8th January 2014

Full question

Hello! I live in India. Brown sugar is available here, but I was not able to find light or dark brown sugar. Only golden brown sugar is available. Most of your recipes call for light or dark brown sugar. Is it OK to use whatever good quality brown sugar is available here? Please help!

Our answer

Light and dark brown sugar in the UK is a type of fine granulated sugar that has molasses added to it. Muscovado sugar is very similar but can be slightly moister and also comes in light and dark versions. We understand that Indian golden brown sugar is very similar to light brown sugar and so can be used as a substitute for light brown sugar in baking and cooking.

In most recipes you can also use light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar and so again you could use golden brown sugar instead. You can also substitute a combination of light or golden brown sugar plus molasses for dark brown sugar. To do this add 1 tablespoon of molasses to each 200g (1 cup) light brown sugar.