You decide to make chocolate chip cookies or birthday cake, or even something savory like a glazed chicken thigh or special bacon, and instead of finding soft, luxurious brown sugar, you find dense, hard lumps that are impossible to incorporate evenly into anything. It happens!
The best way to combat sugar lumps is to take preventative measures to make sure they don't form in the first place. Brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses added, giving it that distinct sandy texture and moister feel—but making it more apt to dry out and harden. Store your brown sugar in an air-tight and sealed container. You want it to be packed super tightly into the smallest container possible, as the less oxygen exposure, the better. I find that keeping brown sugar in its original bag, rolled tightly with no air pockets and rubber-banded closed, is a safe bet, but a Ball jar is also great.
If you're dealing with lumpy brown sugar, don't throw the bag away yet. There are some sweet little tricks to pull that'll get that brown sugar back to its prime. Here are some ways to soften brown sugar so that they will cream oh-so-easily into your cookie batter.
1. Microwave the brown sugar.
The quickest and easiest way to fix this problem is to microwave the brown sugar. Throw it into a microwave-safe bowl, and cover it with a moist paper towel. Microwave in 15 to 20 second increments, breaking up the clumps with a fork in between, until you get the texture closer to what you need.
2. Use a slice of bread to moisten it.
Remember opening up those tin cookie containers as a kid and seeing the slice of bread mom had thrown in there? Well, here’s the same idea. Keeping your brown sugar in a sealed plastic bag with a slice of bread will allow the sugar to draw moisture from the bread and prevent it from getting hard, just like the cookies. This also works with an apple slice! If your brown sugar is already hard, this will take a day or two to work, so set the baking ingredients aside for now.
3. Seal it up with terra cotta.
It’s basically just like using the bread, except fancier. You can order a small piece of terra cotta, such as this adorable bear designed expressly for this purpose. Soak it in water for 20 minutes, and keep it in a sealed container with the brown sugar.
4. Heat it in the oven.
If you don’t have a microwave, but need the brown sugar quickly, turn your oven to the lowest temperature (say, 250 degrees F or lower). Spread out the hardened brown sugar on a baking sheet and heat in the oven, forking out clumps every few minutes. Make sure to watch closely as the sugar could burn or melt.
