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The brown sugar trick that saved my banana bread
I have a bad habit of forgetting to soften butter ahead of time. Last Sunday I wanted to bake banana bread at 7 AM and my butter was rock hard from the fridge. I tried the old microwave trick and ended up with half melted half cold butter. Then I remembered reading somewhere that brown sugar helps soften butter faster because of the moisture. I chopped the cold butter into small cubes, covered them with brown sugar, and let it sit for about 8 minutes. It worked like a charm and my bread came out perfectly moist. Has anyone else tried this shortcut with other types of sugar?
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harper69319d ago
YES the brown sugar trick is a lifesaver I do it all the time now. I read about it on a baking blog last year and tried it with dark brown sugar and it worked even better than white sugar for softening butter fast. My banana bread comes out super soft and moist every time since I switched to this method.
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hayden_nelson8518d agoTop Commenter
Wait wait wait DARK brown sugar? Get out of here. I've been using regular brown sugar this whole time and thought I was a genius. You're telling me dark brown sugar works even better for softening butter? That's actually insane. My banana bread always comes out decent but not like bakery level moist so maybe this is the missing piece. I'm literally gonna try this tonight with my next batch of cookies too thanks for the tip.
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mila_brown1018d ago
Honestly I'm gonna push back a little here @hayden_nelson85. Dark brown sugar has more molasses which can actually mess with your butter softening if you're not careful. The extra moisture from the molasses can make your butter greasy instead of creamy, and I've had cookies come out flat and spread too much because of it. Regular brown sugar is way more forgiving in that sense. Also for banana bread you really need the sugar to dissolve evenly and dark brown sugar can leave little gritty spots if you don't mix it long enough. So I'd say try it but definitely don't expect it to be a miracle fix or anything.
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