This Adorable Bear Gadget Will Keep Your Brown Sugar From Hardening

We’ve been baking a lot since March 2020. But about a year after we were first told to quarantine, we’ve slowed our roll with baking a bit (I just said “a bit” okay??) and that means the piles and piles of baking ingredients we purchased when they were finally back in stock could go bad. And that includes brown sugar. Unlike granulated sugar, brown sugar requires moisture to maintain its texture. Otherwise, if it’s exposed to too much air, it hardens (thanks to the molasses) and you end up with a big block of hard brown sugar, which is a huge bummer.

But with this handy bear, you can not only use it to keep brown sugar from hardening (it’ll give it an extra 3-6 months), but you can also use it to keep cakes and cookies from getting stale by keeping them moist. *And* a lot of Amazon customers state that they’ve used it to soften hard brown sugar — so no more digging at your hard brown sugar with a pickaxe. Just soak the bear in water, toss it with your sugar, and boom. Fresh, silky-sweet brown sugar.

The Brown Sugar Bear is made from a special fired clay that you soak in warm water before placing it in the bag or container full of brown sugar (or other sweets).

The bears really do perform miracles. One Amazon reviewer writes, “I had never even heard of brown sugar savers growing up. Then I was in a cooking store one day and one lady was talking about them so I asked her about them. My brown sugar was always turning as hard as a rock and I’d have to get the mortar and pestle out and pound it out into some fine powder. Then a month or so later I was in the same boat all over again. These are a life saver and worth every penny! I like them better than some of the other brown sugar savers because they are thicker, the sugar doesn’t tend to stick to them as bad and I think they last a little longer.”

Another happy customer says, “Finally got these when I had a huge issue with brown sugar that had turned into a rock in a cylindrical container. I had no way of getting it out. It was like a rock and stuck in there. Stabbed the top with a knife several times and got tiny bits off, then realized that both the container and my hand were going to be in danger if I continued that. Ordered these brown sugar bears and after soaking one of them in water I placed it on top of the brown sugar, replaced the cover and left it overnight. In the morning I was able to remove 1/2 of the sugar from the container and it was soft like from a freshly opened bag of brown sugar. Soaked the bear again and put it back in the container to work on the second half. Highly recommend these bears! Will be using the second bear in a hardened bag of coconut sugar.”

We are kind of obsessed with this adorable hack.