master-cooks | Carla Hall's Trick To Keeping Brown Sugar From Hardening

Carla Hall, the celebrated chef and television personality, has a clever solution for keeping brown sugar soft and ready for use. Her trick is both simple and effective, ensuring that the sugar remains pliable and easy to measure for your favorite recipes. Instead of letting the sugar dry out and harden, which is common when it is improperly stored, Carla recommends using a slice of bread. By placing a slice of bread in the container with the brown sugar, the moisture from the bread transfers to the sugar, preventing it from hardening. This method works because the sugar absorbs moisture from the bread, maintaining its soft texture. The bread itself becomes dry and hard over time, but it keeps the sugar in perfect condition without altering its flavor. Carla suggests checking the bread periodically and replacing it as needed to ensure continuous softness. This practical hack is a lifesaver for bakers and anyone who uses brown sugar regularly, as it eliminates the frustration of dealing with rock-hard sugar. By following Carla Hall’s advice, you can keep your brown sugar soft and ready to use, making baking and cooking more convenient and enjoyable.

Using marshmallows to preserve brown sugar

To keep your brown sugar from drying out, the key is to add a moisture-rich item. Chef Carla Hall suggests using marshmallows for this purpose. Marshmallows are created by combining gelatin with sugar, starch, corn syrup, and water, with the latter two ingredients providing their moisture. As the moisture from the molasses evaporates, the marshmallows help replenish it.

When you open a new bag of brown sugar, transferring it to an airtight container right away will help it last longer. Smaller containers, like OXO's POP storage containers, are particularly effective for this method. After moving the brown sugar into the container, add one or two jumbo marshmallows to keep it free from clumps for several months. To maintain its clump-free state indefinitely, check your brown sugar regularly and replace the marshmallows as they start to harden, ideally every couple of weeks for best results.

The chemistry behind why brown sugar hardens

There are two main types of sugars available — those derived from sugarcane, a type of grass, and those sourced from beets. Molasses is a byproduct of sugarcane processing. In the production of sugar, such as C&H's dark brown cane sugar, manufacturers crush the cane to extract its juice. This juice is then boiled down until sugar crystals begin to form.

Molasses is the syrup that remains after the crystals are removed. Since it originates from sugarcane juice, it retains a significant amount of moisture, even after transforming from juice to syrup. Consequently, when molasses is mixed with granulated sugar, it temporarily adds moisture to brown sugar. This is one of the key distinctions between white and brown sugar.

Just as exposure to air can make bread stale, it can also cause brown sugar to harden into dry clumps. As the moisture from the molasses evaporates, it may appear that nothing prevents the sugar crystals in brown sugar from clumping together and forming solid lumps. Fortunately, that's where marshmallows come into play.

Carla Hall's Trick To Keeping Brown Sugar From Hardening

Using marshmallows to preserve brown sugar

The chemistry behind why brown sugar hardens

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