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soften brown sugar

Feb 11th, 2010 by

It’s frustrating when you want to make cookies and your brown sugar is hard as rock. It’s enough to kill the whole cookie-making mood.

Don’t worry. All is not lost. It’s not necessary to pack up the kids and head for the nearest market for a fresh bag. (If the Damsel had to do that, she’d be hard pressed not to just buy cookies already made and save herself the trouble, as long as she was at the market.)

The Damsel recognizes that mood is important in cookie baking.

Grandma’s favorite trick was to put a piece of bread in the brown sugar container, make sure it was closed tightly, and come back the next day. “Tomorrow” is always a good day for making cookies.

Or, you could use slices of apple. Or a piece of lettuce. Or you could even soak a shard from a broken clay pot, and close that up with the boulder-o-brown-sugar. You can see a pattern begin to emerge–add moisture to the sugar in a controlled fashion. The Damsel testifies that this works, and the brown sugar is in “like-new” condition after a day or two.

But what if you need brown sugar NOW? The Damsel admits, there are times when your back is against the wall when it comes to cookies. Sometimes there’s just no waiting till tomorrow.

You can put the lump in the blender/food processor, if your machine is up to it. After a few ear-splitting minutes, you’ll have brown sugar powder, which can then be measured as usual.

Or, even easier, just nuke the thing. Put the sugar into an open container. Set a bowl of water beside it, and microwave for a minute. Check it…if it’s still not quite soft, you can go again, but just make sure you stop before it melts. That would be considerably worse than having it hard.

Or go old school, and heat it in a 250F degree oven. Check every few minutes until it’s soft enough to measure.

Here’s a brown sugar measuring shortcut: The Damsel does not do that thing where you pack the sugar into a measuring cup with a spoon. Just stick the measuring cup right inside the plastic brown sugar bag, and press the sugar into the measuring cup with your fingers–pressing from the outside of the plastic bag. Does that make sense?

Someone, please tell the Damsel she makes sense. Just once in her life.

Posted in baking, cooking

  • Kristin Plummer

    You make perfect sense! I have wondered if the microwave would work, but never wanted to risk it. I’m more of a bread-in-the-bag type of gal.
    Thanks for the tip! Oh, and I do the scoop-in-bag-and-press-from-the-outside trick too! So much easier!

  • http://thechocolatechipwaffle.blogspot.com/ Terresa Wellborn

    We have a terra cotta teddy bear that we soak in water and then place in the brown sugar bag. Seems to work pretty well, but before that? It was hammer time before cookie baking. Always.

  • http://thechocolatechipwaffle.blogspot.com/ Terresa Wellborn

    PS: Made your White Chili the other night. Think we put in too much cornmeal. But it was still delish! Thanks for the inspiration, as always!

  • Erica

    You made sense. ;^)

  • Mom

    As I remember, brown sugar in the microwave works very well–unless you nuke more than you need at which time that left-over portion becomes doubly hard if not used. I must admit, however, that was nuking without the water.

  • http://cookingwithrockymento.blogspot.com Sande Nascimento

    That was very helpful. Now if I only baked nowadays.

  • http://justnikol.blogspot.com Nikol

    I do the same thing with brown sugar, basically. I keep my sugar in a Tupperware canister, rather than the plastic bag it comes in. I scoop the sugar into the cup and just sort of mash the top against the inner side of the canister. It’s probably not “packed” very well that way but…whatever. A little less brown sugar won’t mess up a recipe.

    • damsel

      Sounds great. So the tupperware keeps it nice and soft?

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  • http://greenandchewy.blogspot.com Carole & Chewy

    I nuke the whole bag – without the water – for about 20 sec. Then check it. As far as measuring, I measure and then add umm, a bunchmore just in case. Is there such a thing as too much brown sugar?

    • damsel

      Your Brown Sugar Philosophy is the best! :)

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  • http://edenwild.wordpress.com Lisa C

    I always thought this was the perfect use for the heal of the bread loaf. Also great for keeping cookies soft for days (like if you are shipping a care package to someone). Ever since I started keeping my brown sugar in an air-tight bin, though, it doesn’t get too hard. Never knew about those other methods, though.

    And yes, you made sense about the measuring short cut–I used to do that when I kept the sugar in the bag.

  • http://emeraldlens.info Lady Ozma

    You make total sense. I also keep my brown sugar in a plastic cannister and since it’s square shaped, I mash that measuring cup against the side. Before that I always just used the bag and pressed from the outside like you said. And as for your question, my brown sugar stays pretty fresh. Of course we like baking so maybe our brown sugar doesn’t stick around long enough to get hard? I don’t know how long you have to wait.

  • http://gottoeat.blogspot.com Lynne Powell

    You make sense! And that is exactly how I measure brown sugar!

    • damsel

      Phew! Thank goodness! Sometimes it’s hard to tell if I make any sense at all.

  • Camille

    Another great way to soften brown sugar is to place it in a bowl – and cover said bowl with a dishtowel that has been dampened with warm water. The sugar will usually be soft in a couple of hours. I have had to do this a couple of times and it works great!