Bread in brown sugar to keep fresh....how long?

[Liz K]

I put a piece of bread in my jar of brown sugar to help keep it fresh and I'm wondering how often I need to replace the bread.

[Mamasue]

Liz...I don't know about bread, but I have used a slice of apple on a couple of occasions and it takes about 2 or 3 days without changing the apple slice. I now make sure that I store the brown sugar in ziplock bags. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[Leonard]

I have found the most amazing thing!!!! I was at a store called "Bed, Bath, and Beyond". Their kitchen housewares section is wonderful. There I found a Terra Cotta, stoneware??? bear that you soak in water for 20 minutes, insert in the container with your brown sugar and it is guaranteed to keep it soft for 3 months. After that, repeat the soaking process and you're in business!! I'm sure the "bear" is available at other gourmet cookware stores.

[Laura B]

I got a couple of those bears, too. I found mine at www.kitchenetc.com (http://www.kitchenetc.com) . But I have not yet used them.

[kendra]

I have found that if you just keep the brown sugar kept very very very tightly sealed, it will stay soft for a very long time, without any of these gizmos. The trick is to not let the brown sugar form into a block before you worry about sealing tightly. Kendra

[HARRYET]

i have the terra cotta things as well but find that bread works best for me,(it could be that i live in the desert and it's really dry here). when the bread drys out i replace it.

Ann

[ghostguru]

I used to live in a high altitude area where the humidity is very dry, and the only way for me to keep my brown sugar soft is to put a piece of wet cotton or crumpled up kleenes or any absorbent paper and put in inside a small plastic bag, about 2 inches by 1 inches and put it with my brown sugar container. The water is just enough to keep the humidity inside the container wet. In fact, i have bought brown sugar on sale in supermarkets because they were hard and i bought them and open them up and put them in my container in this way and the nest day i have soft brown sugar. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

[sushibones]

I think I sent the original post about the bread in the brown sugar. I keep my brown sugar in a plastic container, but I don't use brown sugar often, so it does dry out somewhat in between uses.

I only leave the bread in long enough to soften the sugar. How long that is depends on how hard the sugar is--or how bad my memory is. I forgot I had left a slice of bread in my brown sugar and it was in there for probably a week or more--the brown sugar was VERY loose and the bread was dry. However, for those of you whose memory is still intact, you can just take the bread out as soon as the sugar is soft enough to use. It will then stay soft for quite a while after that. The exact time is probably one day before you need to use the sugar again.

All the bread does is provide a source of moisture to unclump the sugar--the terra cotta thing-y and the apple do the same thing. I personally would rather throw a slice of bread in occasionally than buy a gizmo to do the same thing.

[shoyski]

I've been using the terra cotta discs for awhile now. I've found them at most cooking stores and gave one to every baker in my family this Christmas. I have two!

When I used bread, I had to replace it every few days.

[luv2cook]

Well, I put saran wrap over the brown sugar and then seal. So far so good...

[Norma]

Tupperware!

[Liz K]

Thanks for all the tips.

Like Sushibones, I don't use brown sugar very often. So I'll just do the bread trick a day or so before I need to use it.

I keep my brown sugar in an airtight plastic container, but it still dries out.