Brown sugar is a "granulated, refined sugar that comes from the same plant as white sugar," says Kate Zeratsky, RD, a registered dietitian nutritionist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. It gets its ...

Brown sugar doesn’t always behave. One day it’s perfectly soft and scoopable; the next, it’s a solid, unyielding block. Why does this happen, and how should you store brown sugar to avoid hard lumps?

For the occasional, not-so-serious baker, any old lump of brown sugar might do: light brown, dark brown or even white mixed with a bit of molasses. But for those who strive for baking perfection — ...