Dark & Light Brown Sugars

Light and dark brown sugars get their color and flavor from residual cane juice or molasses that gets separated, in refining, from white sugar, then reintroduced. The cane juice or molasses adds flavor and boosts acidity more than white sugar to help a chemical leavening. There’s also a specific texture range brown sugars deliver. An oatmeal cookie made with brown sugar is more tender and “bendy,” whereas the same recipe made with white sugar will get glassy; brownsugar cakes (like my Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake, or a gingerbread) have just the right crumb, which will stick together when pinched, and the sugar has a way of deepening and complementing the main ingredient. Finally, brown sugars have built-in moisture (that’s why they turn into a rock if the bag or canister is left unsealed), and that moisture goes right into your baked goods.