6 Healthy Cookie Recipes Made with Brown Sugar Substitutes (2024)

FAQs

What happens if you only use brown sugar in cookies? ›

Brown sugar, meanwhile, is dense and compacts easily, creating fewer air pockets during creaming—that means that there's less opportunity to entrap gas, creating cookies that rise less and spread more. With less moisture escaping via steam, they also stay moist and chewy.

For basic baked goods like sugar cookies or pound cake, using maple syrup or honey instead of sugar lends the finished product a little extra flavor. You'll need a little less of these sweeteners for your recipe—just ¾ cup of maple syrup or honey replaces a full cup of granulated sugar.

Date sugar is actually fruit—dried dates are pulverized into a fine powder that's similar to granulated sugar. It's often used as a healthier alternative to white or brown sugar, and you can use it as a one-to-one replacement.

The best brown sugar alternative for baking is Whole Earth Allulose Blend because it offers the optimal combination of sweeteners: allulose + erythritol with monk fruit + stevia.

When we use only brown sugar in a cookie recipe, the resulting cookies will be chewier, since they contain more moisture from the molasses. Also, we'll have a puffier and softer cookies, because molasses is acidic and reacts with baking soda to make them puff up in the oven more.

You can opt for coconut sugar, honey, maple syrup, and agave nectar, which are some good and healthy options. Another good option is shakkar, an unprocessed sugar rich in nutrients like zinc, iron, potassium, and magnesium. You can also use jaggery to sweeten up your desserts and beverages.

It's very similar to regular table sugar, although it is less processed and contains minor amounts of nutrients. If you're going to use coconut sugar, use it sparingly. Coconut sugar belongs in the same boat as most sugar alternatives. It's healthier than refined sugar but less healthy than consuming no sugar at all.

While not entirely organic, Simple Mills makes some of the healthiest cookies we found. The ingredients here are very clean, in addition to being grain-free. The flour is a blend of nuts, the fat is coconut oil, and the sweetener is coconut sugar.

I'd say oatmeal raisin is a very nutritious cookie. A pumpkin chocolate chip with nuts or a peanutbutter with extra chopped peanuts could also be quite nutritious. Maybe also those chocolate peanutbutter oat no-bakes. Sugar cookies and shortbread are least nutritious, I think.

So, if your recipe calls for one cup of white sugar, swap one cup of brown sugar. The sweetness level will be the same, but the brown sugar may change the texture of your baked goods. You'll likely notice a more robust flavor, and the finished baked goods' color may also be darker.

Can maple syrup substitute for brown sugar? ›

For most recipes, maple syrup can easily be used to replace an equal amount of granulated white or brown sugar. To substitute for a cup of sugar, replace it with 1 cup of maple syrup and reduce the quantity of other liquids in the recipe by ¼ cup (60 ml) total. *This method works for most recipes.

Is brown sugar necessary for cookies? Most chocolate chip cookie recipes use a mix of brown sugar (for added moisture and chewiness), and granulated sugar (for that slight crisp on the edges of a cookie), but it is not necessary.

Here's what you need to know. In general, we suggest replacing every cup of brown sugar with ⅔ cup of honey. You'll want to keep consistency in mind, though.