When brown sugar is hard

A quicker way to soften brown sugar is to put a moist paper towel in a plastic bag with the sugar and microwave it for 20 seconds. We all know the feeling.

Hard brown sugar can be a real pain especially if you need some immediately for cooking or baking.

When brown sugar is hard. Hard brown sugar can be a real pain especially if you need some immediately for cooking or baking. Brown sugar has a tendency to harden easily because each individual grain is coated with molasses. This is a very very thin layer that causes the crystals of sugar to glide against each other easily so they feel nice and soft.

Malcolm Tatum Date. February 02 2021 Brown sugar. Just about anyone who cooks with brown sugar has experienced reaching for the container of sugar only to find that it has hardened since the last use.

While hard brown sugar can be irritating especially when the problem is discovered in the middle of preparing a recipe there are several different ways to. If youre in a rush and dont have time to fix your hardened brown sugar with any one of the solutions described above theres also a simple quick solution to get softened brown sugar fast. Ration out how much you need in a microwave safe bowl.

Microwave the hardened sugar in 30 second increments until its malleable and mixable. We all know the feeling. Youre all set to bake but you reach into the pantry to grab the mostly full bag of brown sugar you know you have in there from your last baking project.

And its hard as a rock. This happens due to a prolonged exposure to air. When the moisture in the sugar has evaporated the sugar hardens.

When you buy brown sugar it comes in an airtight container. But then you open itand the more air your brown sugar is exposed to the harder and tougher it will be to break apart. Thats because brown sugar has molasses in it and that molasses evaporates with air exposure leaving you with a big old dense and solid piece.

This is why brown sugar hardens together once it has been exposed to air because the molasses coating evaporates over time and the sugar granules stick back together So once the moisture from the molasses begins to. Over time brown sugar dries out and starts to harden and form clumps because of lack of moisture. A sugar saver is a gadget that helps you keep the moisture content of sugar at the correct level and therefore prevent it from clumping.

You need to soak it before you put it into the container and resoak it every time it dries out. We know brown sugar gets hard if you leave it out and weve developed plenty of strategies for keeping it soft but weve never stopped to wonder why it gets hard in the first place. After all other kinds of sugar are fine on their own.

What makes brown sugar so specialEach crystal of brown sugar is coated with a thin layer of molasses. Is brown sugar still good when hard. Yes brown sugar is still good when it is hard.

Brown sugar is sugar crystals coated with molasses and when it dries out the crystals stick together and the molasses hardens. If your oven has no indicator of its temperature you may use a thermometer to check the temperature inside the oven. Put the blocks of hard sugar in a casserole dish.

Make sure that the sugar doesnt overflow from the casserole dish. Arrange the blocks of sugar properly so they can be heated evenly. A quicker way to soften brown sugar is to put a moist paper towel in a plastic bag with the sugar and microwave it for 20 seconds.

If you are leery about microwaving plastic you could also put the sugar in a glass or ceramic bowl with a. How does brown sugar harden. Molasses in brown sugar are not a big fan or air.

When you keep brown sugar without using it for a long time the elements in the kitchen affect it. What happens when molasses expose themselves to air is they evaporate. Heres a bit of good news— brown sugar doesnt really go bad.

Sure you can find a best before the date on the package. But the said timeframe pertains to its use for cooking. The worst case scenario for brown sugar that has been left in the pantry for a long time is for it to form into a hard clump.

Why does brown sugar harden. Brown sugar is granulated sugar with the addition of molasses. When brown sugar turns hard it is in part because of the molasses.

What happens is that once the brown sugar is exposed to air the.