Cinnamon Sugar Vs. Ground Cinnamon: What's The Difference?

Cinnamon is an important ingredient in all kinds of recipes, from baked goods to stews. You'll see tons of recipes that include cinnamon, whether it be the focus (such as in old-fashioned cinnamon rolls) or simply to add some warming spice to the dish (such as in chicken curry.) This means that cinnamon is an important spice for home cooks to keep around, as you'll inevitably need it sooner or later. However, there are different types of cinnamon, such as cinnamon sugar and ground cinnamon — and you might not realize you're using a different type than the recipe calls for if you don't know the terminology.

Before we can discuss the types of cinnamon, we need to know where it comes from. Cinnamon is a warming spice that comes from the bark of trees in the Cinnamomum family. The bark is harvested, dried, and then either ground into powder or made into the familiar cinnamon sticks you often see at the store. While there are two main types of cinnamon (Ceylon and Cassia), both are processed in this same way.

Put simply, ground cinnamon is cinnamon bark that is ground up, either before or after being turned into a cinnamon stick. By contrast, cinnamon sugar mixes ground cinnamon with granulated sugar (and sometimes salt), giving it a sweeter flavor than pure cinnamon. Despite cinnamon sugar being largely composed of cinnamon, it is used quite differently than regular ground cinnamon.

Since they taste quite different, cinnamon sugar and ground cinnamon are best suited to different things. There are some occasions where you could use either, and this is often the case when making sweet recipes. However, cinnamon is often used in savory recipes like curry, and in that case, using cinnamon sugar would significantly alter the taste of the final dish in a negative way. This means that even if you frequently use cinnamon sugar, it's best to not pre-mix all of your cinnamon this way, since it will become unsuitable for certain things. Rather, you should either mix cinnamon sugar as needed, or mix a portion of your cinnamon with sugar and store it separately from the rest of your spices to avoid confusion.

Due to the added ingredient, cinnamon sugar is commonly used as a topping rather than an ingredient, such as in cinnamon toast. While many recipes use both cinnamon and sugar, these are typically combined along with other ingredients, so you only need to specifically make cinnamon sugar when it's going on top of another dish. If you already have some made, however, you can use it — just be sure to adjust the amount of sugar you use, in addition to the cinnamon sugar.