Weight: 1 cup/8 ounces/227 grams
Characteristics: Rich, heady, sticky, dark, rough, and unrefined. Think supermarket dark brown sugar on steroids. Light muscovado is much milder and comparable to supermarket dark brown sugar in color and flavor. Dark muscovado, on the other hand, is so shockingly dark and full of molasses flavor, it teeters on the edge of being bittersweet, with an almost savory quality.
Where it comes from: Sometimes labeled “Barbados,” “moist,” or “molasses sugar,” muscovado sugar is a minimally processed sugar derived from sugarcane. It’s made by boiling down sugarcane until it evaporates, leaving sticky crystals behind. Muscovado sugar isn’t chemically treated or stripped of its molasses, which gives it its deep color and sticky texture. Most muscovado production happens on the islands of Barbados, Mauritius, and the Philippines, close to the sugarcane source, by people who have been producing the sugar for generations, making it a sort of heirloom sugar with great character. This is a sugar with a true sense of story in its rich flavor.
Best uses: Anywhere you’d use brown sugar, use an equal, firmly packed measure of muscovado. It’s most impressive in baked goods where that alluring combination of crisp edges and chewy centers is the order of the day—think chewy cookies, brownies, bar cookies, and moist, dense, sticky cakes. Muscovado sugar is amazing paired with spices and chocolate, as in the Spiced Chocolate Molasses Buttons and pumped-up candies like the Gingerbread Fudge. Tropical fruits such as bananas and pineapple (and perhaps a hit of dark rum?) are a slam dunk with muscovado.
Dark muscovado in particular can often have some hard clumps in it, so I often go for extra mixing time or run the sugar through a food processor. Sometimes I just go with its unrefined flow and enjoy bonus little molten sugary nuggets in my baked goods. To me, dark muscovado sugar is the ultimate “I can’t put my finger on it, but something in this recipe is absolutely incredible” kind of ingredient.
Bonus points: Because it’s minimally processed, muscovado sugar retains many of the benefits of sugarcane, which in its untouched state is actually a very nutrient-dense plant. Muscovado is rich in calcium, iron, magnesium, vitamins A and C, and lots of the B vitamins, and it has antioxidant properties.
How to store: Muscovado sugar can be tricky to find and expensive, so I buy it in bulk online for the best price and store it wisely. Keeping muscovado sugar moist is key. Since it’s often shipped from exotic locales, your muscovado might come a bit dry, like a big brick. In that case, break it up as best as you can into a container with a tight-fitting lid and add a slice of bread or half an apple. Let the sealed container sit overnight, discard the bread or apple, and you’ll have softer, scoopable muscovado sugar at the ready.