ChatterTip of the Month Holiday 2008

Chattertip of the Month

Chattertips is a new feature ranging from interesting to bizarre to just plain useful! Chattertip for this month:

How to keep brown sugar from going hard

If any of you cook, and in particular bake, you may well have experienced a common occurrence, and that is soft brown sugar that goes hard. Very annoying! And once it goes hard, it is most frustrating figuring out how to soften it again by using such methods as putting it in the oven with a bowl of water, or maybe resorting to just a plain old chisel and hammer. Well, here’s the scoop – take a small piece of clay flower pot (just the same as the broken pieces you use for drainage at the bottom of a flower pot) and soak it in cold water for about 15-20 minutes. Lightly pat it dry and place inside the bag of brown sugar. Seal the bag up again and leave it. I kid you not – this works – I have had a piece of damp clay pot in my sugar for several months now and the sugar is still soft! Every now and then I re-soak the clay piece and replace it in the bag again. Brilliant!