I have a love-hate relationship with brown sugar. I love the deep caramel-y flavor and depth it gives my baked goods, the soft texture it lends to cakes and cookies and the richness it offers toffee and butterscotch sauce.
I hate its finicky consistency that toggles between fresh and easily packable into measuring cups and rock-hard lumps that refuse to cooperate, and the fact that it seems to always end up dry and clumpy exactly when I need to make cookies stat.
There are lots of folks out there who will tell you the exact best way to soften hard brown sugar, but which way is best? To help make sure you and I can make homemade chocolate chip cookies or blondies whenever a craving strikes, I tested eight popular methods to find the very best way to soften brown sugar. Keep reading for all the sweet details.
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Melissa Gaman
How I Tested These Brown Sugar Softening Methods
Before I get to the how, to find these methods, I searched on websites, social media, cookbooks and more to find the most common (and most promising) methods for softening rock-hard brown sugar. I landed on eight methods that used a range of techniques.
To tackle testing each method fairly, I streamlined the process by dividing 4 pounds of fresh brown sugar into eight food storage bags and leaving the bags open, shaking occasionally until the sugar turned into a mixture of hard, lumpy chunks and firm, separate granules.
If the method called for heating the sugar, I transferred it to the appropriate bowl or baking dish, but otherwise I tested it in the storage bag. I stopped evaluating the results of the tests at 24 hours because if it takes more than a day to work, it’s not particularly helpful. The methods were ranked according to ease, length of time to soften and the texture of the revived sugar.
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Why Does Brown Sugar Get Hard in the First Place?
Anything with a soft texture and high moisture content becomes stale with time and repeated exposure to air as that moisture evaporates. This is exactly what happens to brown sugar. Hard brown sugar is the equivalent of it becoming stale, but unlike something like a cracker, which also takes on an unpleasant taste, “stale” brown sugar is just about the texture, not the flavor, which makes it worthy of salvaging.
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What’s the Best Way to Keep Brown Sugar From Getting Hard?
Air is the enemy when it comes to keeping brown sugar soft, so whether you use a jar, container or a resealable food storage bag, the most important thing is to ensure the seal is tight and secure. Since conducting this test, I’ve started transferring my brown sugar into a container or just slipping the whole bag into a resealable storage bag as soon as I get home from the grocery store. This way, I can get ahead of any faulty seams or imperceptible holes in the packaging and prevent the sugar from hardening in the first place.
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8 Popular Ways to Soften Hard Brown Sugar, Ranked From Worst to Best
8. Heat it in the oven
Melissa Gaman
Pros: None
Cons: Ineffective, time-consuming, makes more dishes to clean
Rating: 0/10
This method, warming hard sugar in a baking dish or on a baking sheet in a 250° oven and stirring and mashing the sugar frequently, was either praised or rejected with disdain when I read about it during my research, so I had no idea which way it would go for me. The idea is that the gentle heat of the oven will soften the sugar before it gets hot enough to melt, and frequent stirring ensures even warming. Because the sugar gets hot, it has to cool before use.
I chose a ceramic baking dish so the sugar would be in an even layer and preheated my oven before starting. After about three minutes, it was time for my first check-in. The sugar was exactly the same, but because it wasn’t even warm yet, I just kept going. I continued checking on it every three to five minutes until I hit 20 minutes. The sugar was hot and starting to smell toasted. At that point, a few pieces were soft enough to break apart with a fork, but overall, the sugar was still a mixture of dry granules and tough chunks. Attempting to break the pieces apart led to sugar flying all over my stovetop. This method is time and energy-consuming, and it didn’t work at all for me.
7. Add marshmallows
Melissa Gaman
Pros: Looks cute, smells nice
Cons: Takes a very long time to see minimal change
Rating: 1/10
The idea here is that the moisture from the marshmallows transfers to the sugar, and as the sugar becomes softer, the marshmallows become firmer. I placed two regular, fresh, squishy marshmallows into the bag of hard sugar and sealed it, pressing out the excess air. I checked on it every 20 minutes, pressing on the hard clumps and firm, loose grains of sugar as well as the marshmallows, to judge any changes.
It wasn’t until 40 minutes into the test that a few lumps began to slowly yield when pressed, but when I shook the bag it still sounded like a homemade maraca. Several hours later, the marshmallows were still as pliable as when they went into the bag, and the texture of the sugar wasn’t noticeably different. At this point, I set it aside until the next day because small increments of time weren’t showing significant progress.
At the 24-hour cut-off, some loose sugar had regained a mild tacky softness, but the lumps were still hard. Although not a complete failure, it wasn’t very effective. With so many other easy, fast ways to soften brown sugar, it’s hard to advocate for this one.
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6. Heat it in the microwave
Melissa Gaman
Pros: Easy, quick-ish
Cons: Inconsistent results, not fully softened, need a microwave, fussy
Rating: 3/10
In the second heating method I tried, hard brown sugar is placed in a microwave-safe bowl, covered with a damp paper towel and microwaved in short, 10-second bursts, stirring and mashing after each interval. I was hesitant because the oven method was so unsuccessful, but the addition of a wet paper towel seemed like a key difference.
While researching, I found another version of this method that suggested covering the bowl after topping it with a paper towel. However, due to the short cooking times and frequent uncovering and stirring, I didn’t feel that the additional step added enough benefit for the extra work.
After 2 minutes and 30 seconds of heating and mashing in short intervals, I was annoyed and unimpressed. The sugar was hot, though not dangerously so, and while some of the grains had plumped, there were still a good number of firm chunks that refused to soften.
This method would be acceptable if you just needed to break a large brick of sugar into smaller pieces, but it didn’t bring the sweet stuff back to its original texture to make cookie dough or a smooth, light batter or frosting.
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5. Add a slice of bread
Melissa Gaman
Pros: Convenient, easy, fairly quick
Cons: It wastes a slice of bread, possible gluten contamination, a little messy
Rating: 7/10
As with the marshmallow method, the idea is to introduce an everyday pantry item full of moisture to the sugar so the liquid swaps between the two ingredients. I added a slice of soft bread to my bag of sugar, covering as much as possible, sealed the bag and waited, checking every 20 minutes for changes in texture.
After 40 minutes, the sugar lumps were beginning to soften, and the separate grains looked plumped. After an hour, the sugar was like new. I did my best to gently scrape most of the sugar off the bread (some was too deeply embedded) and remove it from the bag. The bread was still too sugared to try and salvage into toast, so I tossed it.
Next, I massaged the sugar to make sure the texture was even. While this method is easy and relatively fast, I did see flecks of bread mixed into the sugar, which I didn’t love. If I hadn’t tried to remove the wet sugar from the bread, I would have lost a good amount. These reasons make this a good method, but not the best.
4. Add apple slices
Melissa Gaman
Pros: Easy, quick, uses natural, inexpensive, pantry ingredient
Cons: Slightly messy, may impart hint of apple flavor, not great for overnight softening
Rating: 7/10
The premise of adding wet apple slices to the hard sugar is the same as the bread and marshmallows. I added three slices of fresh apple to the bag, spreading them out to cover different sections and, again, started checking the consistency every 20 minutes.
Because apples are more perishable than the other foods, I wasn’t sure how long this test could go before the apples started to mush apart. It took an hour for almost all the sugar to soften, except for the corners furthest away from the apples. I massaged the bag to move that moisture around and expose the still-firm sugar to the apples, and after another 10 minutes, it was all soft. I discarded the apples, scraping off the clinging sugar, and then I massaged the bag again.
I loved that the apples were still edible (not even browned!), though a little sweet, and I didn’t pick up any apple taste or aroma in the sugar itself, which was a critique I’d read about. I wouldn’t recommend this for an overnight, set-it-and-forget-it method due to the fresh apples, but if you have an hour and an apple, this method is worth keeping in mind.
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3. Add a wet paper towel
Melissa Gaman
Pros: Simple, uses everyday household supplies, evenly softens sugar
Cons: Messy to remove the paper towel, some sugar is wasted
Rating: 8/10
This method is another one that introduces water to the sugar, using time rather than heat to promote softening, but no food is needed. I wet a paper towel and then added it to the bag of sugar, covering as much of it as possible before sealing.
After 20 minutes, the dry granules were slightly tacky, and some sugar chunks easily pressed apart. Ten minutes later, the entire bag of sugar was soft and fresh again. The trickiest part was trying to remove the paper towel without spilling sugar or wasting it. The sugar will inevitably stick to the paper towel, but throwing away more than a light dusting is counterintuitive to reviving it in the first place. Luckily, most of it shook off with a little patience. The ease of covering the sugar for even softening and the fast result made this one of my favorite methods.
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2. Buy a terra cotta disk
Melissa Gaman
Pros: The disk is reusable, no perishable food, it does not have to be removed, you can buy cute shapes and designs, great for long-term use
Cons: You have to plan ahead, terra cotta has to be soaked, you have to buy it, not super quick
Rating: 9/10
Have you ever seen a cute little bear-shaped or decorative round brown sugar saver and wondered how it keeps brown sugar soft? The savers are just pieces of unglazed terra cotta, a porous earthenware that does a great job of holding onto moisture without having a wet exterior.
Once soaked and dried off, you add it to soft or hard brown sugar and leave it in there for months before resoaking to either revive the sugar or prevent it from becoming hard in the first place. I bought an adorable bee-themed terra cotta round, washed it and soaked it for 20 to 30 minutes. I dried it well with a towel, placed it in my bag of sugar and sealed it.
After 20 minutes, only the sugar directly around the disk was softening. The results were similar after 1 hour, so I massaged the bag briefly to redistribute everything. After another hour, 2 hours total, I was able to release all the hard chunks and then rub the dry grains back into the sugar. It wasn’t initially as fluffy and tacky as in some other methods, but the longer it sat, the better the texture became. Because you can leave the terra cotta disk in the sugar without worry for up to 2 months, it’s a great long-term option if you plan ahead, but it’s not the quickest solution.
1. Add water and knead
Melissa Gaman
Pros: It’s fast and easy, no special ingredients required, you don’t have to remove anything
Cons: It takes some manual effort
Rating: 10/10
If brown sugar hardens because it loses moisture, then can’t you just literally add liquid back in? That’s the simple premise of this method Stella Parks wrote about on Serious Eats. I added about 3/4 teaspoon of water to my food storage bag of hard sugar, sealed it, pressed the air out and set it aside. I was skeptical because it seemed like very little liquid to a lot of sugar, and besides a few dots of melted sugar, the bag looked very dry.
After only 10 minutes, I squeezed a previously firm chunk, and it immediately yielded to the pressure and broke apart. I took a few minutes to work the sealed bag, kneading the water through the sugar. The result was as good as a brand-new bag of sugar.
This method didn’t require removing anything, heating anything or running the risk of spoiled or moldy food. Plus, it worked fast enough that if I wanted to bake right away, it would be soft and ready to go by the time my oven was preheated and my ingredients were measured. I can’t believe I’ve never tried this before, but it’s going to become my new go-to method.
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