What to use instead of unrefined sugar
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Sweetening a fruit filling or a batter
It dissolves into the liquid and holds water there, which keeps a pie filling from setting hard and a crumb from drying out overnight.
White granulated sugarRan out
1:1 by weight
Cleaner and flatter. You lose the molasses note, and pale fruit like apple stays paler in the oven.
Light brown sugarRan out
1:1 by weight, plus 1 extra tsp thickener per cup of fruit
The closest match. Slightly more moisture, so a fruit filling runs unless you add the extra starch.
Coconut sugarRan out
1:1 by weight
Darker and drier with a caramel-molasses taste. Browns faster, so pastry edges catch before the middle is done.
Jaggery, gratedRan out
1:1 by weight
Mineral and faintly savoury. It muddies a bright fruit like strawberry and suits stone fruit better.
Maple syrupRan out
3/4 cup per 1 cup sugar, and cut other liquid by 3 tbsp
Batter is looser and browns faster, so drop the oven 25F. Maple comes through clearly in anything plain.
What doesn't work: A granulated sugar-free sweetener cup for cup in a pie. It sweetens but it holds no water and adds no viscosity, so the filling stays loose and recrystallises into a gritty layer as the pie cools.
Sugar in a glaze or marinade that caramelises on heat
It browns under a grill into the sticky lacquer on kalbi or char siu, and it tempers the salt in a soy-heavy marinade at the same time.
Brown sugarRan out
1:1 by weight
Darker lacquer with more molasses behind it, and the char arrives sooner.
HoneyRan out
3/4 cup per 1 cup sugar
Burns noticeably sooner. Move the meat further from the heat or brush it on in the last 5 minutes only.
MirinRan out
3 tbsp mirin per 1 tbsp sugar, and take 2 tbsp off the other liquid
Thinner glaze that needs a longer reduction, with a rice-wine sweetness and a better shine.
Maple syrupRan out
3/4 cup per 1 cup sugar, cut other liquid by 3 tbsp
Tastes distinctly of maple and sets softer, so the glaze stays tacky rather than setting to a crust.
What doesn't work: Artificial sweetener in a barbecue glaze. There is no sugar to caramelise, so the meat comes off the grill sweet but grey, with no lacquer and no char.