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Hi Bold Bakers!
As a professional chef with more than a decade of experience I want to get you into the kitchen and baking with confidence. I’m going to equip you with the skill you need to successfully bake anything you like.
Now, many times we see things and don’t know why they are the way they are. Clumps in brown sugar are a perfect example of this.
So many times I have had to break up hard lumps of brown sugar with my hands knowing that if it makes its way into my cake it will not work itself out It will just stay there in a big sugary lump.
Why Does Brown Sugar Clump?
So, brown sugar is a mixture of white sugar and molasses (treacle). It is made by rubbing the two together evenly turning the sugar brown. Watch my video on How to make Brown Sugar to see how.
The reason it clumps is due to the moisture in the molasses. Just think about it, white sugar is dry therefore doesn’t clump, but imagine mixing it with a wet ingredient and it will. There is extra moisture in brown sugar that white doesn’t have, therefore it clumps and goes hard.
How to Store Brown Sugar
If your brown sugar has turned clumpy or hard as a rock, there’s still hope! Follow my Bold Baking Basics tip and you will instantly remove clumps from your brown sugar.
Place a slice of bread or a marshmallow in the bottom of your brown sugar bag or container. This will absorb any extra moisture together leaving you with the perfect texture for measuring, baking and cooking!
What Does this Do?
The bread will soak up all the moisture in the container drawing it away from the sugar. The results are you end up with fine, clump-free sugar that is ready to be used.
Just note, the bread doesn’t go bad in the container. Because it drew all the moisture from the sugar it ends up drying out and getting hard, so it won’t spoil.
Did you like this baking tip? I have lots more short videos just like this one that will help you get baking confidently in the kitchen. Get more Bold Baking Basics.
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About Us
Meet Gemma
About Us
Meet Gemma
Hi Bold Bakers! I’m Gemma Stafford, a professional chef originally from Ireland, best-selling cookbook author, and the creator of Bigger Bolder Baking and the Bold Baking Network. I want to help you bake with confidence anytime, anywhere with my trusted and tested recipes and baking tips. You may have seen one of my 1000+ videos on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok or as a guest judge on Nailed It! on Netflix or the Best Baker in America on Food Network. No matter your skills, my Bold Baking Team & I want to be your #1 authority for everything baking.
Do i leave the marshmallow in or take it out after done?
The bread doesn’t soak up the moisture, its the exact opposite. You can do this with cookies too to make them stay soft.
Tried that, done that …. Big failure.
I now put the brown sugar, in its original bag, into a food saver bag and seal it. I unseal the food saver bag, remove as much sugar as I need for my recipe, resale the bag and leave it. Keeps forever that way.
Hi Susan
I have learned so much about baking and have used many of your recipes
Keep Recipes coming I’m hooked !!
Thank you! ????
Hi Gemma,
Thanks for the brilliant brown sugar recipe. I came to the BBB site hunting your cute glass jars, but I can’t find them on any of the product pages nor linked in the brown sugar recipe page or the brown sugar storage post above. The labels were on your Good Cooks/ other baking tools page. Could you please point me in the right direction? Thank you!
-Best,
Susan Lynn (from FB)