How to Soften Brown Sugar

If you found the brown sugar at the back of your cupboard is rock-hard, it may spoil your cooking plans. Don’t get upset! We covered this situation in our test and found that stale brown sugar can be softened in some easiest ways.

Most of the people have had the experience of taking out a container of brown sugar to prepare a recipe. Because they find out that the sugar is rock.

There are some easiest ways & hacks to soften brown sugar. By following this guide about how to soften brown sugar, you will get soft packet fresh brown sugar.

But before that, we should know why does brown sugar get hard? Well, let me explain first.

Why Does Brown Sugar Get Hard?

Usually, brown sugar is coated in molasses. In fresh brown sugar, molasses coating allows the sugar crystals to move. Thus, the sugar stays soft and manageable. If the brown sugar gets into the touch of Air, then the moisture in the molasses evaporates. Then the particles of the sugar lose the ability to move & the coating dries out. In that case, the brown sugar gets harden into solid rock.

Let’s get started & experiment the hacks to soften hardened brown sugar.

Method 1: How to Soften Brown Sugar with Bread

Put a slice of bread into the container of the brown sugar. Then keep it for 8 hours. If the sugar is hard, then it might take longer than 8 hours. After that, you will get a promising result. And you will have soft, fresh brown sugar to use it again.

The bread also contains moisture, and it evaporates when exposed to the Air.  When you keep it with a sealed container with dried out brown sugar, the water vapour sticks to the sugar. Thus, it gets surrounded by a thin layer of water, and the sugar softens.

Method 2:  Using Microwave to Soften Brown Sugar

The previous method is a lengthy process. So, you may be looking for a quickest one to soften brown sugar. It is normal, and that’s why we will now tell you another secret about how to soften brown sugar quickly.

Using your microwave to soften brown sugar is the easiest and quickest way. Put your hard brown sugar into a bowl with a paper towel top over it. Now place the that into the microwave and heat it 30 seconds at a half-power setting. Then do it again until you get soft brown sugar. When you do, reduce the time at 15 seconds. After sometimes the brown sugar will be ready to use again.

Method 3: Using Marshmallows to Soften Brown Sugar

What is you do not have a microwave? In that case, there is an easier way to that. Now, we are going to tell you another interesting technique to soften brown sugar. By reading this, in just two sentences, you can answer the question of how to soften brown sugar with marshmallows.

Those fluffy and MOIST marshmallows are the best ingredients for softening hard brown sugar. Just add two or three plump marshmallows and sealed the sugar container. After someday, recheck it. Then you will see that the sugar has absorbed the moisture and is soft again.

Method 4: Use a Damp Towel to Soften Brown Sugar

Maybe you are not believing me and questioning yourself, is it possible? To remove all of your confusion now, I am going to tell you how to soften brown sugar with a damp or wet towel.

First, take a bowl of water and dump the towel for wetting very well. Then squeeze the towel to remove as much of the water as possible. Take another bowl and put your hardened brown sugar in the bowl. Then covered the bowl completely with the damp towel.

Keep it overnight and recheck it in the morning. By the time your hardened brown sugar will be soft and fresh to use again.

Method 5: Softening Brown Sugar with a Terra Cotta Disk

Many of us don’t know that there is a kitchen tool which can soften brown sugar more quickly. That is a terra cotta disk. Terra cotta disk also used to keep dried fruit, popcorn, marshmallows and of course brown sugar.

Don’t you have one? Don’t worry! You already have one and don’t know that. You can get a piece of terra cotta from a broken plant pot. See how easy? Let’s see how to soften brown sugar with a terra cotta.

Polished the small part of the terra cotta and soaked it very well. You can also piece in water for about 30 minutes then remove excess water. Now ready for the final part. Keep the terra cotta disk into your brown sugar container. Keep it overnight with tightly sealed and check in the morning. See how easily you can soften brown sugar? Yes, it is a very easy process if you know the steps very well.

Now, here is another bonus tip for you. Learn how to keep your brown sugar always soft.

How to Keep Brown Sugar Soft?

No matter how easy softening, the brown sugar is. If you take the necessary steps from the beginning, it never appeared in this form. So, how can you keep it always soft? Well, it is a very simple process.

The only responsible thing is Air. Air dry out molasses-coated crystals. If you can ensure an airtight container to keep your brown sugar, it will always stay soft. Here are some ways how you can do that.

• Using terra cotta disk that we mentioned above will help to keep your sugar soft for a couple of months.
• Keeping carrot peels, or saltine crackers in the container will work just fine.
• If you want storage brown sugar for a long time, use a double storage airtight container.
• You can put the fresh soft brown sugar in a zip-top bag. But first, ensure that the bag has no air.

Conclusion

To avoid all the complications, use an airtight container from the beginning. But following our guidelines, it will always be easy for you to soften brown sugar. We hope you enjoyed this guide about how to soften brown sugar and learned the ultimate ways to do it.