Does this cute way of keeping brown sugar soft really work?
Published Mar. 1, 2007.
We recently came across this terra-cotta Brown Sugar Bear, a cuter and cuddlier alternative to our standby method of softening hardened brown sugar with a slice of fresh bread left in the bag of sugar overnight.
But does cuter mean better? To find out, we left two bags of brown sugar open overnight to turn the sugar hard and lumpy. Then we put a bread slice into one and the sugar bear (which first gets a brief soak in water) into the other and sealed them up in zipper-lock bags. The next day, both bags of sugar were moist and pliable. But the sugar bear has one added bonus: Because it is nonperishable, it can be stored indefinitely in the sugar for ongoing insurance against drying.
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.