Have you ever discovered your brown sugar has turned as hard as stone? Here are some easy tips for how to soften brown sugar so you can avoid wasting it!
How To Soften Brown Sugar
If you’ve ever done any baking at all, then you have probably come across rock hard brown sugar. It can be very frustrating when you need to sprinkle brown sugar over your favorite recipe or over your breakfast cereal!
Just because brown sugar gets dried out and hard doesn’t mean it is wasted. Our kids love it when they discover that the bag has hardened because they can break off small bits and eat them like candy! The good news is that you can restore the brown sugar to it’s former glory in just a few minutes and it’ll be good to use again!
Here are 8 easy ideas about how to soften brown sugar. They are all simple, frugal, prevent food waste and of course, will save you a trip to the grocery store! All of these ideas to soften brown sugar work well and some of them work in just a few seconds!
Tip To Prevent Brown Sugar From Drying Out
Always store your brown sugar in an airtight container. Some people say store it in the refrigerator or freezer but the best way to make sure you don’t have to soften brown sugar is to keep it airtight in the first place.
You can store the brown sugar in the bag as long as you always remember to tightly seal it when you’re done using it. If you prefer, glass jars (like baking jars or mason jars) and plastic containers with firmly sealing lids also work well.
If it does dry out, here are some easy ways to soften brown sugar:
- Microwave the brown sugar for 15-20 seconds. If this doesn’t work, place a glass of water in the microwave with it and microwave again for 20 seconds. Then you should have softened brown sugar.
- Place it in an oven on a cookie sheet at 250°. Set a pan of water in the oven with it. Then bake until you soften the brown sugar. Check frequently as it will melt if you let it bake too long.
- Place the hard brown sugar in a blender and pulse until chopped.
- Place it in a plastic bag and hammer it into pieces.
- Place a piece of bread in the bag with your brown sugar and seal the bag.
- Place a moist paper towel in with the brown sugar to help soften the brown sugar. Leave for several hours.
- Place a few apple slices in with the brown sugar and seal. In the morning your should have softened brown sugar. Take out the apples after it’s soft.
- Moisten a piece of clean terracotta clay, let it drip dry and place the piece in the bag to soften brown sugar. You can also store a piece of terracotta in with the brown sugar to keep it soft.
Here’s our video demonstration of how to soften brown sugar in 20 seconds!
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You can also throw in some marshmallows to the container. Works like a charm!
Air tight tupperware hands down!
A piece of citrus peel (orange or lemon) works great too! Just place it in the bag, seal and let sit for a couple of hours. Discard with peel once the sugar is soft again.
I keep a slice of bread in my Tupperware container that Ikeep my brown sugar in.
best best best way to keep sugar good is an airtight container and stick a piece of bread in it with the sugar! I’ve done this for years and never had sugar dry out on me. And a trick for iceberg lettuce is to take out the core by pounding on the counter – then moisten a paper towel, wring it out and put the lettuce back in a plastic bag with the paper towel loosely covering the hole where the core was. Lettuce will keep for a very long time this way. Easy peasy!
I do the same as Jessica a. I have never had a problem of the brown sugar hardening on me. I always stockpile brown sugar when it’s on sale so I always have it on hand.
These are great tips.
Once when I was working in a restaurant/bakery, the delivery of baking ingredients arrived; the 20-lb. bag of powdered sugar was found to be partly hard as a rock. The baker, in her anger, threw the bag on the back porch to be discarded later. I put in in my car, took it home (I’m quite the “baker” myself!), shared some with co-workers, and each time I needed some, I’d break it up, and put it in my Cuisinart, until the lumps were gone. That stuff is too expensive to throw out :-)
If the brown sugar is really hard, break it into pieces to fit an airtight container with a lid. Take out a clean wash cloth, thoroughly soak it with clean water, wring it out, then spread the cloth over the top of the hard sugar in the container. Put on the airtight lid, and wait a day. Remove the cloth the next day. The sugar may be bleached out on the surface, but underneath the colour will be fine, and the sugar will be soft.