Toasted Sugar? Toasted Sugar!​

Transform those everyday granules into something special.

Tucker Shaw

There you are, staring at the perfectly white dish of sugar. Your teaspoon hovers over it, ready to scoop out a measure for your coffee cup. It’ll add some reliable, uncomplicated sweetness to your coffee. But you wonder, as you stir, is reliable and uncomplicated really enough? Can I do better?

Sure, you could reach for demarara or brown sugar to add a deeper molasses note. Or you could splash in a glug of maple syrup for a woodsy flavor.

Or … you could use toasted sugar, which brings a beautiful caramel flavor, sweet and complex with just a wink of bitterness for contrast.

Usually, when you think of caramel, you think of sugar that’s been heated in a saucepan or skillet past the point of liquification, then cooked to a sticky, deep amber goo. This is the starting point for a creamy sauce or buttery candy. But by cooking granulated sugar in the oven instead, at a more measured temperature over several hours, your granules stay solid, taking on a golden hue and developing a subtle, mesmerizing caramel flavor and aroma—someplace between butterscotch and campfire marshmallow. It’s different from demerara, which has bigger granules and a more pronounced molasses flavor. Toasted sugar has the same sandy granules as white sugar, and a flavor that’s subtle, rounded, and really, really good.