How To: Soften Hard Brown Sugar in a Hurry

What do you do when you pull out the bag of brown sugar and it's a perfectly formed, rock-hard, square-edged brick? This doesn't happen often to us (we use a lot of brown sugar), but it did the other day. So we read some home remedies and found one that worked on the spot...

This list came up in our search:

10 Ways To Soften Hard Brown Sugar from TipNut.com

It includes some ideas we've heard before, like putting a slice of bread or some apple slices on top of the sugar, sealing it up, and letting it sit for a day or two. That's all fine and good if you have a day or two. We needed our sugar right away.

So, we tried the trick of putting a moist paper towel in a plastic bag with the sugar and microwaving it for 20 seconds. We supposed you could do it in a glass bowl topped with a plate, to avoid the plastic angle, but our sugar was already in a plastic bag, so...

Our verdict? Worked like a charm. We had to add another 10 seconds after the initial 20, and we still needed to press and pinch the big lumps a little, but eventually they yielded into soft, pliable piles of ready-to-use sugar. (We should note that we took these photos before we finished mushing. Those hunks really did break down.)

If you don't use brown sugar regularly and encounter this problem often, consider buying a terra cotta brown sugar saver. Or, moisten a piece of clean terra cotta from a planter and make a DIY version.

(Images: Elizabeth Passarella)

Comments (13)

Man, do i ever feel stupid for not thinking of this! I was trying to make cookies the other day, and in desperation ended up putting my "brick" of sugar into the food processor :(

What if you don't have a microwave?

I chipped off some chunks last time, then mashed them with my mortar and pestle. However I thereby discovered that my mortar and pestle (from india) shed stone dust... ick.

sphinxie- click on the link in the post (10 tips from TipNut). There's a tip about putting in a very low oven for a few minutes, which I would assume might have the same effect as the microwave.

I've placed a slice of an apple inside a bag of brown sugar (keep in the fridge of course) and that kept it nice & moist. I can't remember where I heard of it??

If you're going to use it up right away, you can smack the bag on the counter to break up the brick then food process it. It'll re-brick again though if you don't use it immediately, but it does work.

I keep my brown sugar double bagged, and then stuck inside a Tupperware canister. I learned to do this when I lived on the gulf coast, where the heat and humidity can destroy your pantry supplies very quickly.

there's a problem that i encountered that i'd love some advice on... i know this post is super old, but if anyone has an idea i'd love it:

when i mic'd my brown sugar with the little wet paper towel, it rehardened the minute that it cooled off again... it was really fickle, and even when i mixed it in with things it would reharden (i was mixing it with other dry ingredients). is there a way to keep it nice and soft? just for about 5 minutes while i blend it wiht the other dry ingredients before adding the liquids?

Putting a slice of bread in works too -- it'll be soft by the next day.

Whoops, that was actually mentioned in the article. And yes, it does take a day.

Cooks Illustrated recommends putting a slice of bread in with the sugar and microwaving for ~30 seconds. Cooks Illustrated is never wrong.

The day you buy it, put it in an airtight container and pop it in the freezer. When you go to start a recipe that calls for brown sugar, put it on the counter before you do anything else. By the time you get to the step where you need it (about five minutes), it'll be thawed and perfectly soft every time. Pop it back in the freezer when you're done.

Put it in the microwave without the paper towel it works... I was making peanut butter cookies and I had a brick of brown sugar. My mom put it in a glass bowl and put it in the microwave for 1 minute with nothing else. Worked like a charm!!!