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Every home cook has been there: Youre getting ready to bake, you reach into your pantry to get your ingredients and you realize your brown sugar is hard as a rock. Dont worry! Once you know how to soften brown sugar, you can get back to business—and back to making treats like Ree Drummonds brown sugar oatmeal cookies or her favorite turkey brine for Thanksgiving. Dont just toss your brown sugar and use granulated instead—brown sugar has a unique molasses flavor and adds tons of moisture to baked goods.
So what went wrong? The main reason your brown sugar is super hard is because it dried out. After you open a package of brown sugar, you instantly release some of the natural moisture in the sugar. The exposure to open air dries and hardens both the sugar crystals and the molasses in the sugar, making the sugar crystals stick together. The end result: brown sugar that feels more like stone than damp sand! But the good news is your brown sugar is still totally usable. The even better news is that reviving your solid brown sugar is simple—just restore the moisture. Read on to learn how to soften brown sugar in a few different ways. And to keep your brown sugar from hardening in the first place, store it in a tightly-sealed food storage container that isnt prone to rust (dont just fold down the top of the bag and hope for the best). You can also add a brown sugar saver to your container, like a , which can help maintain moisture in brown sugar for up to six months.
Essentially, brown sugar hardens when moisture evaporates due to aging or improper storage. But hardened sugar is still safe to eat and use—you just have to soften it back up to a usable texture. If your recipe has the sugar dissolving or melting into a liquid, you can actually use the hardened stuff without issue.
How to Soften Brown Sugar in the Microwave:
This is the fastest and easiest way to soften hardened brown sugar. Just place your block of brown sugar in a microwave-safe bowl. Wet a paper towel and squeeze until just slightly damp. Lay the paper towel over the brown sugar and microwave it in 20-second intervals, loosening the sugar with a fork between each interval, until the sugar has returned to its normal texture.
How to Soften Brown Sugar Without a Microwave:
This method will take a little longer, but itll do the trick! Place your hardened brown sugar in a secure plastic container or bag. Then, lay a slice of sandwich bread on top of the brown sugar and cover the container with the lid or seal it if using a bag. Let sit for at least 12 hours (or overnight). This method works like magic—the moisture from the bread is transferred to the brown sugar, helping it get back to its normally soft texture. You can also use the same method with apple slices. All you have to do is lay an apple slice or two on top of the brown sugar and apply the same technique as with the slice of sandwich bread.
How To Soften Brown Sugar
FAQ
Can you still use brown sugar if it’s hard?
Is hardened white sugar still good?
Does Brown Sugar go bad?
Although brown sugar has a long lifespan, Vickers says that it can still go bad. “If you find bugs or other contaminants in your sugar, it should be disposed of immediately,” she says. Otherwise, the fact that your brown sugar has hardened over time isn’t necessarily a sign that it’s gone bad.
Is brown sugar better than white granulated sugar?
From a nutrition perspective, using both withe sugar or brown sugar is almost the same, as both contain approximately 15 calories per teaspoon (4. 2 grams). Brown sugar contains slightly more minerals than white sugar, but will not provide any health benefits. In fact, your intake of all types of sugar should be limited for optimal health.
Can you eat hardened brown sugar?
Essentially, brown sugar hardens when moisture evaporates due to aging or improper storage. But hardened sugar is still safe to eat and use—you just have to soften it back up to a usable texture. If your recipe has the sugar dissolving or melting into a liquid, you can actually use the hardened stuff without issue.
Does brown sugar Harden?
As long as you can keep the moisture in, the brown sugar will not harden. Storing brown sugar in the refrigerator, which is a moist environment, can help keep it soft, but this is not necessary if you have a good container. If your brown sugar does harden, the way to soften it again is to get moisture back into it.