Here's a gadget we love: the terra cotta Brown Sugar Saver. It actually softens brown sugar that has become rock-hard (don't you hate that?!) and keeps new brown sugar from heading in that direction. Ingenious.
And it really works! Forget all those kitchen gadgets offering empty promises. This baby does its job.
Of course, it's Canadian. Lucky for us they're available at cooks' supply stores all over the states and won't ever run you more than about $3.00. We got this one at Sur La Table. You can also find them at Broadway Panhandler (in the form of a bear instead of a sun), or direct from Sugar Bears, Inc.
Doesn't look nearly as cool, but a piece of bread does the same thing. :-)
Apples work too.
I have a brown sugar bear that I got as a stocking stuffer. So far, so good, but I've been baking lately, so I've been using it more than normal.
What is it about a piece of terracotta that makes this happen? I've always just put a piece of damp paper towel in there overnight and it's done the trick.
I use bread.
Keeping brown sugar in the fridge keeps it from getting rock hard too.
I have one of these at home, and they work fantastically, except when I use mine I often get white hard sugar that accumulates around the disc.
As a Canadian living in Australia for the moment I was actually surprised to find that brown sugar simply does not harden here. So such a device would be useless here. Just a little geographical FYI.
i just nuke the brown sugar in the microwave for a few seconds and the rocks just disappear...
I read a bit on the topic and to answer Ken's question, it's not the terra cotta per se that makes the sugar free flowing again. It's the water in the terra cotta, the apple, the paper towel or anything else with moisture.
Turns out, brown sugar is really just white sugar to which molasses are added. After a few weeks, months of exposure to air, the molasses dry out and clump up the sugar grains. Reintroducing moisture to the sugar will rehydrate the molasses and in turn, the sugar will free flow again!
Pretty cool, I had no idea!
I always store brown sugar in the freezer. Works pretty well and also it does not take up precious fridge space.
Compmouse,
The reason the sugar clumps to the terra cotta is it hasn't been patted dry enough. It happens to me, too! :o)
Also, what most people don't know is you don't have to bury the Brown Sugar Saver into the brown sugar, but it can just sit on top as long as the container is sealed.
Cindy H
http://www.jbkpottery.com
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Compmouse,
I am an Australian living in Australia and my brown gets rock-hard all the time! Strange. You live in Queensland?
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my brown *sugar*. Er.
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I use dry rice kernels. I put some in the raw sugar I use on a daily basis in my coffee too. Just a few kernels in my sugar dish, and it never gets hard!
Pulls the moisture out of the sugar, I guess. On occasion, you find a few rice kernels at the bottom of your coffee cup, but no problem there...
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