Make Your Own Brown Sugar!

Yes! It is possible here in India!! : )  First, you need to get Gur or Sheera from your dukan.  It looks like this (the caramel colored balls in the bag):

 You'll also need either some breakfast sugar or, some bhura, which is just really finely granulated sugar. Both work. : ) Here's my two bowls, one with breakfast sugar, one with bhura.

Next, you want to melt the gur/sheera.  For one cup of sugar, use about two balls.  Double as needed. (You can do this in mass and store in in a ziploc.)

 It will melt and start to bubble like in this picture.  Keep the heat low.  When there are no more lumps and the syrup is smooth, you need to add just a bit of water, like maybe 1 Tablespoon?  I think this is like slightly dehydrated molasses.  Adding the water makes it a good consistency to mix and coat the sugar.  Otherwise, it will clump with the sugar.  So make sure you do add the water!

Next, stir it slowly to help the bubbles and foam subside.  If you need to scoop the foam off with the spoon and toss it until you're left with a dark yet clear syrup.

Now, have your hand mixer ready, and start adding 1 T. at a time to the sugar/bhura and mix it to coat the sugar granules.  Mix it until it's a good consistency.  For one cup of sugar, I added about 4 T. of syrup, and by then it was about the right color and consistency.  It packs great!  It tastes slightly different from American brown sugar, but feels the same.

 This is made from breakfast sugar.

And this is made from bhura.  The bhura didn't get quite as caramel colored, but it tasted the same and had a good texture. 

The true test, I made chocolate chips cookies with it.  And they were perfect! 

 See how it packed in the measuring cup?  Perfect!

Here's the cookies!  Just like normal, no alteration in taste as far as we could tell, nice, soft and moist! 

YAY!  No more hauling 10 pounds of brown sugar back! : ) (And, it'll save you quite a bit if you use bhura!)