• Place a moistened cloth over the open container and leave it for several hours .

• Hard brown sugar will soften if you place a cut apple piece in the container overnight. Remove apple piece next day and sugar will remain soft.

may sound different but works

• If the brown sugar is in a box, put it in a plastic bag. Run a little square of paper towel under the faucet (smaller than a postcard). Wring it out, then put into the bag, seal, and stick in microwave for 15-20 seconds. You might have to keep checking it. But I guarantee you, it works like a charm.

• Put the brown sugar in a bowl, sprinkle a tiny bit of water on it, cover it, and put it in a microwave for a half minute or so depending on the amount you want softened.

• To keep the brown sugar soft, place a terra cotta (clay) disc in water over night and then in the sugar container. It will slowly release the moisture into the sugar.

• Microwave it for 15-30 seconds on high without any additional water.

• Easiest one I've found to work would be to place a slice of toast inside the container where the brown sugar is. Works like a charm.

• My wife puts in a slice of bread and seals it, and leaves it over night. She says it works.

• The Terra Cotta disc works very well, and only needs to be soaked for about fifteen minutes, patted dry, and then placed ON the brown sugar in a sealed container. There is no worry of mold using this method, and there are no food tastes imparted to the brown sugar! This softens rock hard brown sugar and also keeps brown sugar soft for up to 3 months when the disc can simply be re-soaked.

Another answer

Beat with a small mallet <- (This answer isn't entirely true. It doesn't soften it. It just breaks the brown sugar into smaller, more useful pieces)

Yet Another Answer

If your using it to put ontop of something microwavable, just put the brown sugar in a container and heat it up with whatever you are heating up already (just don't keep it in for too long. About 15-25 seconds will do it.) Take it out and it will be warm and soft again.

The BEST Answer a easy!!!!!

Thanks for the microwave idea. It really works:)!!!!!! I had a brown sugar brick and no time to run to the store...yikes! The sugar had dehydrated and become hard. I took my meat tenderizer mallet and broke the brick up into pieces about the size of a grape. I placed it in the microwave in an open bag next to a coffee cup half full of water. I heated to water on high for 3 -4 minutes so the hot water created a steamy environment in the microwave. I let it cool for a few minutes. Removed it from the microwave. The brown sugar rocks were soft and easy to squeeze into granulated brown sugar. The flavor was perfect.

Answer

You can mix white granulated sugar with molasses.

In fact, brown sugar is just a mixture of white sugar and molasses. I use 1 part molasses to 6-8 parts sugar. (Usually I add them to recipes separately, but sometimes I premix my brown sugar--you should probably do this to figure out what proportions you prefer.)

Answer

Splenda has a Brown Sugar now, which tastes great.

Answer

The actual substitue is 1 tablespoon molasses to 1 cup white sugar but like the person above said, you should premix it to see what you prefer.