How to Soften Hardened Brown Sugar

It happens, year after year, some recipe calls for Brown Sugar. If you don't have it on hand and you don't live close enough to a neighbor to 'borrow a cup of sugar', you make that extra trip to the grocery store. A year later you need brown sugar again, maybe this time for your Sweet Patater Surprize. Daggummit! Your last year's 1 pound bag of brown sugar evolved into a Brown Sugar Rock! Don't fret because here is yet another approach to softening up that sweet block...

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Last year's (or older) block of Brown Sugar
• Large glass bowl
• Small custard-size bowl to fit inside larger bowl leaving room for the block of sugar
• Water
• Microwave

1. Fill the small bowl half full (or half empty depending on your personality type :-) with tap water. Place it in the larger bowl next to the block of brown sugar.

2. 
    
   This is what is should look like after you've started to crumble it apart

   Place the larger bowl, in which you have placed the small bowl of water and the block of brown sugar, uncovered, into the microwave. Nuke it for 30 seconds on high. Remove it from the microwave, set it on the counter top and, using your hands, gently squeeze, pull & crumble the softened layer.

3. Repeat Step 2 and that should be enough to completely crumble the block down to size!

Tips & Warnings

• This is the way I tried it and it only took 2, 30 second heating cycles in my Magic Chef microwave.