Home Made Brown Sugar

I've known for a while that brown sugar is just white sugar mixed with molasses.  If you run out of brown sugar, you can make your own.  Now, I think for a lot of people, myself included, molasses is not that kind of ingredient that you're more likely to have on hand than brown sugar.  However, when I was little, my mom used to make for us "molasses in milk."  And in a nostalgic mood, I recently purchased some molasses, although I never actually got to the point of making myself some molasses in milk.

So, I had some molasses sitting in my cupboard when I realized I was out of brown sugar.  I had already asked the scientist to run to the store for some eggs (having forgotten to pick them up myself when I was at the store).  I didn't think either one of us wanted to walk over to the store a second time, and I really wanted to make some cookies, so I decided to make my own brown sugar.

I hopped on the internet and found that the recipe for brown sugar is quite simple:  1 Cup white sugar + 1 Tablespoon molasses.  I like recipes with nice numbers like that.  You have to mix and mix and mix with a fork, and I eventually just put my hands in it to get it to mix.  It felt so weird - it stuck to my fingers like it was wet, and yet it felt dry.  It's worth making up your own brown sugar just for the sensory experience alone.

My cookie batter turned out a very unusual consistency.  I'm not sure if it was the recipe I used, or if it was the home made brown sugar, but the dough had the consistency of whipped cream!  It was so soft and fluffy.  I'm going to make one of my familiar recipes with the home made brown sugar and find out if the brown sugar is what caused that consistency.  These cookies that I made had a nice taste (not too peanut buttery) and were wonderfully sandy on the edges/a little chewy in the middle.  But they were very delicate.  I had to let them cool in the pan.  I didn't take any pictures, sorry.

I just thought I'd share that.  Because I feel like I should offer my blog readers more than just scrapbook layouts.  I don't know why.  Here are said layouts ...

At a playdate back in February, Miller found the little girl's bottle cap snake.  He was in love with it.  I asked her how she got all the bottle caps and she said they saved them up.  The scientist likes beer, so I was hopeful that we could save some too.  It took about 5 months to save nearly 100 caps.  I'm now saving up for my own bottle cap snake ... that's how cool these things are.

Midwinter's Flight Templates by Amy Martin
Sunny with Blue Skies and Vintage Vogue Elements by Sahlin Studio

I have put some flowering plants out on my porch and have managed to keep them alive for a while.  I've even cut some of the flowers and put them in my favorite vases - jelly jars.  I've been in love with the beauty of jelly jars for a while and have wanted to scrap about it.  The picture here was from my wedding.

Midwinter's Flight Templates by Amy Martin; Sunny with Blue Skies by
Sahlin Studio; Make a Wish by Sahlin Studio and Valorie Wibbens

This one was for a Digi Dare to scrap about the breakfast routine. I wrote about mine and Miller's liquid breakfasts.

One Fine Day by Valorie Wibbens & Amy Wolff
Simple & Straight Template by Simply Tiffany Design

Well, It's now several days later.  I guess it's time to publish this post.  I'm looking forward to some cooking/baking adventures.  I still want to make some more cookies with my home-made brown sugar, and I plan to make some meals with veggie purees from the Deceptively Delicious book by Jessica Seinfeld.  I'm excited to try her recipes ... but I'm a little disturbed by her aversion to egg yolks.  Particularly since she embraces things like soft tub margarine spread.  Yuck!  Give me an egg yolk over margarine any day.