Sugar Savvy

“I’m no schoolboy, but I know what I like”
- M.Jagger/K.Richards

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I LOVE brown sugar. Brown sugar has been a faithful and consistent standby in times of candy scarcity. I’ve often referred on Sugar Savvy to childhood moments of eating spoonfuls of dark brown sugar. I lived in a house where store-bought confections were scarce but scratch baking ingredients were always available, thus creating a circumstance which makes a kid resourceful. And, as it turns out, it makes a kid a pretty darned good baker. At least this kid (I have the 4H trophies to prove it, in case you doubt me!)

The truth is, when I say “I USED to eat brown sugar by the spoonful,” I’m speaking in the past tense to describe the events of, (ahem) last week. I used to eat brown sugar by the spoonful. And, not one to forsake a faithful friend, I still do. My name is Joanna and I eat brown sugar. (In case you’re wondering, my very first cavity didn’t show up until age 30.)

But having developed a more sophisticated “adult” palate, I tend to reserve my “straight from the spoon” sugar eating for this lovely variety of the good stuff:

Billington’s Dark Brown Molasses Sugar
Product of Mauritius – packed by Billington’s – Liverpool, UK

As described on the package:
All natural cane sugar
“Billington’s Dark Brown Molasses Sugar is a soft, moist fine-grained sugar. Rich in natural molasses it has a deep brown colour and distinctive toffee flavour.”

According to their package, common brown sugar is nothing more than refined, white sugar with molasses added. Billington’s however, is sugar in its purest form – in the sense that the molasses was never removed in the first place. The flavor, through their natural processing method, is locked in and thus retains more depth of taste and color. Or, as they say, “colour.” (They’re British, remember?) This sugar is produced in Mauritius, and I’m ashamed to admit that I had to pull out my Google finger for that one, as I didn’t know quite where in the world Mauritius was. Now I do:

I would, of course, never turn my nose up at the good old C+H brown sugar (dark brown, preferably). In fact, for purposes of baking and cooking where several other ingredients are co-starring, I would actually recommend a standard variety of brown sugar.

Save the Billington’s for situations that highlight its caramel-y and full-bodied richness.

Here are just a few ideas:

•Sprinkle a bit of the fairy dust atop a scoop of ice cream.
•Make your oatmeal stand up and sing an aria.
•Slice open a fresh fig, add a smattering of the Billingtons on each half, and place under the broiler for a minute or two. This works wonderfully with many other fruits as well, particularly bananas, peaches and berries. A scoop of vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream would not be out of place here, either.
•Get out your spoon and take it straight, man.

The options are clearly limitless.

To read about even more varities of extra-special sugars, check out Helen Yee’s post: Getting Sugar Savvy.