I've been told I'm pretty good with using the Internet as a search tool and that's a skill I take pride in. Tonight, I'm kinda stumped, though perhaps I should try harder than a five-minute Google search.

In any case, can ya help me? Why do baked goods like muffins and glazed doughnuts get "wet" when they're stored in a container or a bag? You know what I'm talking about. If not, try this at home (preferably without parental supervision). Go to your local doughnut or muffin purveyor and purchase a glazed doughnut and/or a muffin, possibly of the blueberry variety. Get a fresh baked specimen if possible. Take said baked specimen and store it in a closed paper or plastic bag. It doesn't have to be airtight, so feel free to keep a mouse in there too.

After about a day or possibly less, check up on your baked good. Depending on the exchange rate in your country, the muffin top and/or the entire doughnut surface should look like it's wet with a sheen of something. I've noticed this for years and I'm inclined to think the baked good is drawing water from the air. I've actually seen this since I worked in a science lab in high school. We had a chemical solid that had to be kept airtight in a container because it would get wet when contacting the air. It would draw moisture from the air. There's a formal name for that property but I forgot it.

Anyways, I hesitate to attribute that same property to a doughnut since that would be kinda scary. My best and latest guess is that the sugar in the baked good is somehow reacting with the air and breaking something down in the dough to make the surface appear wet.

Random guesses aside, does anyone know the real story behind my wet muffin?

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