Does anyone know what an unrefined, natural substitute for brown sugar would be?

Question

Please understand that brown sugar is not the same as regular granular sugar. It is very fine, and moist. Recipes always say to pack brown sugar. How could you possibly pack regular sugar?

Answer 1

Natural brown sugar is a name for raw sugar which is a brown sugar produced from the first crystallisation of cane. Raw sugar is more commonly used than processed white sugar. As such "natural brown sugar" is free of additional dyes and chemicals. There is more molasses in brown sugar, giving it a higher mineral content. Some natural brown sugars have particular names and characteristics, and are sold as: Demerara or Muscovado.

Answer 2

Natural Substitute For Brown Sugar

Answer 3

You are either looking for molasses, which brown sugar is made from, or turbinado sugar, which is essentially raw, unrefined sugar which naturally contains some molasses.

Molasses comes in light and dark varieties, and is probably not a great substitute unless combined with ordinary white cane sugar, because it tends to be very strongly flavored and significantly less sweet than brown sugar. Turbinado sugar is a more coarse, more robust version of brown sugar. It is the product that results after the sugar is extracted from molasses, but before it is refined to remove the residual molasses and rendered into white sugar. It is usually found in gourmet or specialty grocery stores, and also in organic and health food stores. You may have seen it marketed under the brand "Sugar In the Raw." It has a sweetness comparable to normal sugar coupled with the richer flavor of brown sugar. You should be able to substitute turbinado sugar 1-to-1 for brown sugar.

Answer 4

Sugar has to be refined to some extent before you would recognize it as sugar. If you really want to go -natural- you could use honey with a bit of molasses for flavor. Honey, of course, is completely natural food, they just strain the insect parts out of it. Molasses is what they get out of sugar when they refine it! So you could say it was the -opposite- of refined sugar. 8^)

And also there is something called 'raw' sugar that you often see in little packets in coffee shops. I have a friend who has a stomach problem and she can't put regular sugar in her coffee, but she can have this stuff. (And she can't have regular coffee either, only a non-fat latte). So, though it looks and tastes a lot like light brown sugar, it must be made differently.

Answer 5

Rahpunda (Rapunzel) makes an un refined sugar that i use in place of brown sugar

Answer 6

You can get turbinado or demerara sugar which are sugar in the raw state.

Answer 7

This is all I could find on it :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_sugar#Natural_brown_sugar
Good Luck.

Answer 8

cinimon?