Last year I made a post about keeping brown sugar soft. I had found a tip online about putting marshmallows in with your brown sugar to keep it soft, so I tried it, and it WORKED! So far I’ve not had a problem with my brown sugar drying out. But what happens when your brown sugar is already dried out? Not just a little dry, but hard as a rock? Maybe you bought too much and didn’t use it quickly enough, or else you left it open in the cupboard. Brown sugar is very finicky and it doesn’t take much to dry out. Once it’s hard, it’s impossible to properly measure, it ruins recipes, and most people just throw it out. So I’m going to tell you how to fix it!
I recently came across a package of brown sugar at work that was hard as a rock. I literally had to chisel at it just to get it out. After some googling, I finally found a solution that works.
Take a couple sheets of paper towel. Wet with water, and wring it out. Lay the moist paper on top of the brown sugar and seal the container shut. Leave it for 12 hours. Come back and check it. I’ve done this a few times now and it has worked every time! There was one time that I came back to find that the paper towel was completely dry. All you need to do it rewet it and seal it again, and let it sit for another 12-24 hours.
Once you’ve sufficiently softened the brown sugar, you can either break it up with a spoon or fork, or stick it in your stand mixer.
And don’t be alarmed by what the sugar looks like when you first open it! When you use the wet paper towel method, the sugar closest to the towel gets very moist and the molasses will leach out of it, leaving it looking slightly soggy and white. Just mix it up well and it will look much better! Now that your brown sugar is soft again, throw a couple regular sized marshmallows in the container to keep it soft.
