What Is Muscovado Sugar?
Muscovado sugar is a type of brown sugar made from sugar cane. Its name is derived from the Portuguese term “açúcar mascavado” and the Spanish term “azúcar mascabado,” both of which translate to “unrefined sugar.” Although muscovado sugar undergoes some refinement processes and is technically partially refined, it is commonly referred to as unrefined sugar.
Muscovado sugar is characterized by its distinctive brown color and rich flavor, which comes from its high molasses content retained during production. This sugar has a wet sand texture, very fine granules, and a deep caramel-like flavor, which actually is a taste of molasses.
Muscovado sugar can come in both light and dark varieties. However, in my area, dark muscovado sugar is much more commonly found. While light muscovado is available in some specialty shops, I’ve never seen it in a regular grocery store. All my experiences and advice are based on using dark muscovado sugar.
How To Use Dark Muscovado Sugar in Baking?
Adding a bit of dark muscovado sugar gives baked goods a caramel-like, nutty flavor, deepens their color, and enhances the chocolate taste. It also adds some moisture which makes cookies chewier. However, the taste of this sugar is only good in moderation. A lot of muscovado sugar means a lot of molasses taste, which can quickly become overpowering, and not in a nice way. Trust me, I’ve tried.
Being wet and highly clumpy it’s a bit more challenging to use than regular white or light brown sugar. It does not work well for creaming with butter or simply mixing in with wet ingredients, because this way you are still left with lots of tough sugar clumps that will be visible on your cake as dark patches. My preferred method to use this sugar is to combine it with butter in the saucepan and melt them together mixing until fully combined. Sugar does not really melt because it cannot melt in fat, but it gets mixed in the warm butter pretty well. Then I strain the mixture through a fine sieve, discard stubborn sugar lumps if any are left, and use the mixture in batter or dough.
Can You Use Muscovado Sugar Instead of White Granulated Sugar?
I would not recommend that unless you are a fan of molasses and could eat it alone with joy, but I truly doubt that. If you would like to add that butterscotch note to the recipe, that originally calls for white sugar only, change 30% of white sugar with muscovado sugar at most. But keep in mind that you will also change the texture, as with muscovado sugar you will add some extra moisture.
How To Substitute Muscovado Sugar?
You can use light brown or even white sugar instead of muscovado for the recipe to work, but the taste, texture, and color of your baked good will be different. The closer you could get with taste is by using white sugar and adding a tablespoon of molasses for each 50 g / 1.8 oz of sugar.
How to Store Muscovado Sugar?
Do not leave muscovado sugar in an original packaging after opening it. Move the sugar into airtight container. Left with contact with air it will lose its moisture, harden up, and become hardly usable. But if that happens to your muscovado sugar, don’t throw it out, cover it with a damp cloth and leave it overnight. Sugar will absorb water from the cloth and soften again.
