Here's how to soften brown sugar quickly. Put the brown sugar lump in a microwave-safe bowl. Wet a paper towel and wring it out so it's lightly damp. Cover the bowl and microwave in second bursts until the sugar is crumbly again. Poke the sugar with a fork between bursts to help break up the lump.
Be sure not to microwave it for too long, otherwise the sugar will melt. Handle carefully because the sugar might be very hot. Place the hard sugar in an oven-safe bowl and warm it in the oven, checking every couple of minutes and crumbling with a fork until the sugar is soft. Caution: The sugar will be hot. Put a slice of fresh bread in an airtight container with the lumpy brown sugar. After about a day, the sugar will have absorbed enough moisture from the bread to become its soft and crumbly self again.
If you find that you need just a few more seconds, add another 15 sec at a time. Preheat your oven to degrees, put your hardened brown sugar in foil and wrap tight, then place it on a baking sheet in case it drips. Check on it every 5 minutes or so until it is soft. Make sure to wear an oven mitt because it is going to get HOT. Allow for the brown sugar to cool off before adding it to your recipe. Adding bread or believe it or not apple slices to an airtight container with your hardened brown sugar and letting it sit overnight will soften it.
The moisture from the apples or bread will slowly be added back into your brown sugar. You can also make your brown sugar soft again by leaving it out on the counter overnight in a bowl with a dampened dishtowel laid over it.
Again, the key to softening brown sugar is adding moisture back into it. The best way to keep your brown sugar soft is to make sure that it has moisture. Keeping it in an airtight container is important. The less air the better to prevent it from drying out. You might need to use a fork to break up any lumps of brown sugar. Use this method if you need your brown sugar softened quickly.
Otherwise, keep scrolling for some other methods, including my favorite method for keeping brown sugar soft. I recommend placing the wrapped brown sugar on a baking sheet just in case there are any spills. Carefully check the brown sugar for softness every 5 minutes It is hot, you know!
Then let the brown sugar to cool before using in your recipe. This one may seem a bit odd, but just go with it. Place your hardened brown sugar in a sealable plastic bag or an airtight container. Place a slice of fresh soft bread or a few apple slices in the container with the brown sugar. Cover it tightly and leave overnight. Check the brown sugar for softness the next morning. If necessary, seal the container again and check again after a few hours.
Be sure to remove the bread or apples! Dampen a kitchen towel or thick paper towel. Wring it out well to remove as much excess water as possible. Place the brown sugar in a bowl, and cover the bowl with the dampened towel so that the opening is completely covered but the towel is not touching the brown sugar. Leave the covered bowl on your countertop overnight or until the brown sugar has softened.
If you store your brown sugar in an airtight canister, you can also cover the top surface with aluminum foil or plastic wrap,and place the dampened towel on top of the foil or plastic wrap. Close the container and leave overnight or until the brown sugar has softened. How it worked: I saw results in my apple bag after just two hours; because I added a few slices, which could be dispersed on all sides of the hardened sugar, the sugar softened evenly.
The moisture from the apples also managed to seep deeper into larger chunks of sugar than other methods, breaking them down all the way through in less time.
The apples did get brown, mushy, and coated in sugar in time, which made me eager to fish them out of the bag. I'd read that brown sugar treated this way takes on a subtle apple flavor and found that to be true, so I was hesitant to combine this apple-y sugar with the rest of my brown sugar once soft again. What it is: A slice of bread emits moisture as it goes stale , which can soften a sealed container of hardened brown sugar.
To eight ounces of solid brown sugar, I added one slice of basic whole wheat sandwich bread. How it worked: The bread method worked about as quickly as the apple method, softening my brown sugar through in just about two hours.
Because there was just the one slice, I found that all the sugar nearest to it softened first, so I moved the bread around a few times to give all of the sugar access to its moisture. It did not penetrate into the more stubborn chunks of sugar as deeply as the apples did, but by shaking the bag to move the bread around, it did evenly soften.
The biggest drawback with the bread test was that it was the quickest to create condensation on the inside of the bag, like it was steaming up from the inside. There were even some golden brown droplets where the grains of sugar and that moisture interacted, which I didn't love.
But the bread slice itself was much easier to remove from the bag in one piece, and didn't alter the flavor of the sugar.
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