Baking
Best Granulated Sugar Substitutes
Out of Granulated Sugar? Here are 3 real substitutes, ranked and ratio-backed.
1. Honey
Ratio: 3/4 cup honey per 1 cup sugar, and reduce other liquid in the recipe by about 1/4 cup
Adds moisture and a distinct flavor, and browns faster — often needs a slightly lower oven temperature to avoid over-browning.
Best for: baking (with recipe adjustment)
2. Brown sugar
Ratio: 1:1
Adds molasses flavor and extra moisture, giving a softer, chewier texture than granulated sugar produces.
Best for: baking
3. Maple syrup
Ratio: 3/4 cup maple syrup per 1 cup sugar, and reduce other liquid by about 3 tbsp
Adds real maple flavor and moisture; browns faster than granulated sugar.
Best for: baking (with recipe adjustment)
Granulated sugar substitutes almost always trade one straightforward property (dry, neutral sweetness) for a liquid sweetener's added moisture and distinct flavor, which is why every substitute on this page comes with a note about reducing another liquid in the recipe — a detail that's easy to miss and commonly causes a too-wet result when skipped.
Brown sugar is the outlier among the three in that it's still a dry sugar, just with molasses added back in — the closest, most drop-in-friendly substitute of the group, at the cost of adding a molasses flavor and extra moisture and chewiness that plain granulated sugar doesn't have.
Honey and maple syrup both browns faster than granulated sugar in the oven, which is why their substitution notes typically pair with a slightly lower baking temperature recommendation — without that adjustment, a recipe swapped to a liquid sweetener can over-brown on the outside before the inside finishes baking.
Sugar's role in how a cookie spreads and browns is worth knowing about before swapping in any of these three, since it isn't just sweetness — granulated sugar's crystals hold their structure through baking in a way that affects spread, while both honey and maple syrup's higher moisture content tends to produce a softer, less crisp-edged cookie even when the sweetness level lands about right.
Powdered (confectioners') sugar isn't a direct substitute for granulated sugar in most of these recipes either, despite both being dry sugars — it dissolves faster and contains a small amount of added cornstarch, which can subtly change a batter's texture in a way this page's three real substitutes, all closer to granulated sugar's actual composition, don't.
Need to convert Granulated Sugar first? See its conversion page.
Frequently asked questions
Why do honey and maple syrup substitutions both say to reduce another liquid in the recipe?
Because both are liquid sweeteners, unlike dry granulated sugar — swapping them in without removing some of the recipe's other liquid adds extra moisture the recipe wasn't designed for, which can make baked goods too wet or dense.
Is brown sugar a closer substitute for granulated sugar than honey or maple syrup?
Yes, noticeably — nothing about brown sugar requires reducing another liquid in the recipe or lowering the oven temperature the way the two syrups do, since it never stops being a dry, crystalline sugar; the only real adjustment is accepting a bit more moisture, chew, and molasses flavor than a purely neutral cup of white sugar would bring.
Why do honey and maple syrup brown baked goods faster?
Their natural sugars and trace compounds kick off the browning reaction at a lower temperature than plain sucrose does, so the crust on a swapped-in recipe can go from golden to overdone well before the center has finished setting if the oven isn't dialed back to compensate.
Can I use a sugar substitute like stevia or monk fruit instead of one of these three?
Non-nutritive sweeteners behave very differently in baking chemistry — they don't provide the moisture, browning, or bulk granulated sugar does — so they're a different category of substitute entirely from the real-sugar options covered here, with their own separate conversion considerations this page doesn't cover.
Does date sugar or coconut sugar work as a substitute the way honey or maple syrup do?
They're dry sugars rather than liquid sweeteners, so they behave more like a 1:1 granulated sugar swap in terms of moisture, though both add a distinct flavor and slightly different sweetness level worth accounting for.