Do you have brown sugar issues? Lately, I’ve been baking chocolate chip cookies for my boys and I’ve been wondering how to soften brown sugar to get the clumps out of it! Therefore, after a little searching, I figured out how.
4 Ways to Soften Brown Sugar
Depending on how fast you need your brown sugar soft, according to Choc Chip Cookie Recipe Blog, there are 4 ways to soften hard brown sugar:
1. Microwave – The the fastest way to soften brown sugar is in your microwave. Place the bowl of brown sugar in the middle of your microwave next to a cup of water. Microwave brown sugar on high for 45 seconds to 2 minutes, checking the softening brown sugar every 30 seconds. Occasionally stir and loosen with a spoon. Repeat until you have reached the desired consistency.
2. Oven – Without a microwave, you can soften it with your oven but it will take a little longer. Heat your oven to 250 degrees fahrenheit and cook it in an oven-proof baking dish. Stir occasionally, but bake no more than 5-10 minutes to sufficiently soften brown sugar. The down side is that the brown sugar will not keep soft for future use.
3. Overnight – Place 2 moistened paper towels inside a bowl with the brown sugar. The towels should be damp, but not sopping wet. Then, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then tin foil. Leave on your counter over night to use the brown sugar the next day.
4. Bread Method – Once you have softened your sugar you want to keep it soft. Put the brown sugar in an air tight container and add a piece of bread. Leave for 1-2 days and voila! Your brown sugar will be velvety moist again and the bread will be completely dried out. Be sure to throw away the piece of bread.
How to Properly Store Brown Sugar
The best way to prevent hardened brown sugar is to keep it air tight while in storage. A plastic container with lid is ideal, but if you have to leave it in the bag be sure the bag is sealed or place it in an air-tight Ziploc bag.
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What cooking tips or questions do you have?
GENIUS!!!
Thank you for this! I was going to google it tonight. 🙂
I didn’t know there were so many ways. I read somewhere to put a huge marshmallow in the container and it should soften up too.
thank you thank you thank you!!! It took me 15 min to scrape, pound, pick, poke, and prod my brown sugar the other day! BOY IS THIS HELPFUL!
Another way is to put a whole, unpeeled apple right in there with your brown sugar. The apple will keep for quite a while, but eventually it’ll go bad so you do have to check it occasionally.