With Easter just around the corner, it’s the perfect time of year to indulge in more chocolate than usual. There are plenty of Easter recipes for baked goodies, too, that are easy to make at home and will leave your kitchen smelling incredible.
From tarts to cakes, you can even make your own hot cross buns in the air fryer, too, and there’s nothing better than being able to share a homemade baked good over the Easter weekend. But if it’s been some time since you’ve put your apron on and done any baking, you might find some of your staple ingredients have gone off or, in the case of sugar, clumped together to form a hard and solid rock.
This can be especially stressful if you’ve decided to leave it until the last minute, as many of us often do. If you don’t bake that often, it’s also a waste of time and money to invest in a new packet of sugar.
Instead, Dame Prue Leith has shared her method for getting your sugar smooth and ready to use in no time, and it only costs 30p using one ingredient you probably already have in your kitchen.
Sugar is a crucial ingredient when it comes to baking, contributing to the texture and structure of baked goods, and influencing how they rise which is essential to their appearance.
More than just an added sweetness, it’s also used to achieve a super smooth cake batter, helping incorporate air into the batter, which expands during baking and prevents baked goods from being too dense.
Next time you’re just about to start baking and realise your sugar has clumped together and simply won’t break down with a gentle nudge, use Dame Prue’s kitchen handy tip instead that will keep it separated and ready to use in the future.
She posted the tip on her Instagram, explaining: “When brown sugar dries to a concrete block, put it in an airtight container with a lemon, apple or orange. In 24 hours, it will be soft and spoonable.”
Put your sugar into an airtight container, ideally a jar or plastic tub, with a lemon, apple or orange. Adding whichever ingredient you have on hand will allow the moisture to return to the sugar, breaking it down into its normal state in just 24 hours.
A single lemon costs just 30p from Sainsbury’s, making this a relatively affordable hack.
