Miseall ingredients
substitutes

Brown Sugar substitutes

Out of brown sugar? Here are the best substitutes — what to reach for, why it works, and how much to use. White sugar + molasses is the top pick.

  1. 01
    White sugar + molassesbest pick

    Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added back.

    1 cup sugar + 1 tbsp molasses

  2. 02
    Coconut sugar

    Similar caramel notes and moisture.

    1:1

  3. 03
    White sugar

    Works in a pinch; loses moisture and caramel depth.

    1:1

Cooking with brown sugar?

Paste your recipe into Mise — we'll find every ingredient as a real product you can buy, and swap the ones you can't, like brown sugar, for the closest match in stock.

Turn a recipe into a basket →

How we choose these

These are tested kitchen substitutes, chosen for matching flavor, texture, and role — with ratios so the swap actually works. Taste as you go; substitutes shift intensity, not just flavor.

Flavor data: Epicure (Radzikowski & Chen, 2026), arXiv:2605.22391, CC-BY-4.0.