Happy Friday! I’m happy to report my harebrained idea of softening overbaked brownies with fresh bread worked hilariously and incredibly well.
I tried to take a video of how soft they were but it failed and we ate the whole pan in a few days. Here’s an after taste test photo though lol. Final count to ultimate brownie softness was 6 breads.
I love how many people had never heard of the bread solution for making baked goods soft so here’s the rundown of what happened in case you find yourself in this situation.
I put the brownies in with a timer and went upstairs and promptly forgot about them until my void came up to voice concerns (pic 3). By then they were coming off the edges of the pan and I knew they would be hard as rocks. Fortunately they didn’t actually burn because that’s an immediate throw away.
I often pop a piece of bread in with cookies if they are too hard and it softens them right up, so I figured what’s wrong with trying here.
I didn’t have any kind of airtight seal and they were so hard they couldn’t come out of the pan. They were rock hard about an inch around the edges and the bottom like a commenter predicted, was also hard, so hard I couldn’t even cut them.
Day 1 In put in a single piece of bread and wrapped it all in an oven bag. Evening of day 1 my partner wanted brownies but they were still hard so I shushed him away and switched out the bread with 4 new pieces.
The next day… it was an absolute Christmas miracle. They were so soft I could pull them apart with my hands. Originally they were so hard they would cut your cheek to bite them, but the bread softened them so much I could even cut through them. The bottom was still hard and I’m sure lining the bottom with bread would have softened it up too.
For the record the brownies were dollar store brownies with dollar store peanut butter cookies mixed in and they were absolutely fantastic, thank you for coming to my ted talk.
by 1920MCMLibrarian
19 Comments
Original post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Baking/s/CKCY2zwbZl) 🙂
It’s how I keep my brown sugars soft. 1 piece of bread in the sugar container. It has a lid, but br sugar can still get hard and lumpy even with a cover. Not anymore with a piece of bread tucked in.
My mom taught me the bread with cookies trick. Store all the cookies with a slice of bread. Bread gets hard, cookies stay soft longer.
Thanks for the very entertaining update, the bread tip AND the pic of your void. We had a void for 13 years, he was such a sweet cat!
I’ve tried this with baked goods and it works great! I also just purchased a
rock hard slab of parmesan and googled how to soften it. Wrap it in damp paper towels, who knew???
Beautiful for brownies trick and a gorgeous fur baby.
That… That’s a cat.
A simple syrup coating works well too. Just poke some holes in it with a toothpick then brush it on with a pastry brush or even a basting mop.
What a beautiful void!!!
lovely bonus pic of the cat. handsome
Bread turns brownies into cats????
How hard did the bread end up? I’ve put it in with brown sugar and it softened the sugar but the bread turned into a rock so I’m curious about your slices!
Kitty looks a little overbaked
I have been using a piece of bread in the cookie jar to rejuvenate dry hard cookies, since the 60s
I wish I knew this when I made my last batch of brownies 😭 My boyfriend’s oven cooks differently from mine and the brownies were so dry
I loved flipping through these photos and opening photo 3 for a surprise!
Thank you for this update!! I was honestly skeptical if it would work. I’m so glad things worked out well!
Can’t remember if you did this as well but, especially with cakes, they really benefit from a good stint in the fridge. The humidity helps keep the crumb moist and I think would work similarly for brownies. I swear by it for all of my bakes these days
Good to know!
Also, love the bonus picture of your void r/BlackCats