Carolina Style Mustard Bbq Sauce - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups prepared yellow mustard (French's)
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup tomato paste
5 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (can adjust to desired heat level)
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Preparation

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan & whisk over medium heat.
Once the sauce is simmering, whisk until the sugar dissolves completely. This should take 5 minutes or less.
Do not overcook (sauce requires less time simmering if sugar substitue is used).
Remove from heat and cool before using.
Store sauce in a sterilized GLASS jar in the refrigerator between uses.
(I sterilize a suitable empty BBQ sauce bottle by capping with 1/2 cup of cider vinegar inside it, swirling it by shaking several times over a few days, & then draining well when ready to fill with BBQ sauce.).
Optional: in place of the light brown sugar, use 1/2 cup of sugar substitute + 1T molasses. The sugar substitute version (which I now keep on hand) is diabetic friendly & easier to adapt to sugar substitute than most tomato based sauces I have attempted to modify & encountered consistency problems.