Many icing and candy recipes require you to bring a mixture of water and
granulated sugar to a boil and keep cooking until it reaches a certain
temperature. This sounds easy enough, but if done incorrectly some of
the sugar in the syrup will turn back into crystals and your candy or
icing will be unpleasantly grainy instead of silky smooth.
Many icing and candy recipes require you to bring a mixture of water and granulated sugar to a boil and keep cooking until it reaches a certain temperature. This sounds easy enough, but if done incorrectly some of the sugar in the syrup will turn back into crystals and your candy or icing will be unpleasantly grainy instead of silky smooth. The crystals like to form wherever there is something for them to grab onto - such as a little speck of dirt or another, un-melted bit of sugar. You will often see a little corn syrup or an acid like lemon juice or cream of tartar in syrup recipes. Both these ingredients discourage crystals from forming. Here are some more tips to prevent unwanted crystallization:
1. Use only clean granulated sugar and a clean pot. Little specks of flour or other tiny impurities can encourage crystallization. Especially don't use the flour scoop to measure the sugar for your syrup!
2. Mix the sugar and water in a bowl, then pour without splashing into the pan in which you plan on cooking the syrup. Even though this dirties an extra dish, it keeps dry sugar crystals from getting stuck to the sides of the pan while you are stirring the sugar and water together. Any dry crystals near the syrup's edges will cause trouble later in the process by encouraging more crystals to form near them. If you do get a little dry sugar stuck to the edge of your pan, you can rinse it off by brushing the pan just above the crystal with a clean pastry brush that has been dipped in cold water.
3. Once the syrup is on the heat, don't stir at all until it reaches the correct temperature! It can be hard to resist the temptation, but any sort of agitation of the mixture will increase the chances of crystallization.
Many icing and candy recipes require you to bring a mixture of water and granulated sugar to a boil and keep cooking until it reaches a certain temperature. This sounds easy enough, but if done incorrectly some of the sugar in the syrup will turn back into crystals and your candy or icing will be unpleasantly grainy instead of silky smooth. The crystals like to form wherever there is something for them to grab onto - such as a little speck of dirt or another, un-melted bit of sugar. You will often see a little corn syrup or an acid like lemon juice or cream of tartar in syrup recipes. Both these ingredients discourage crystals from forming. Here are some more tips to prevent unwanted crystallization:
1. Use only clean granulated sugar and a clean pot. Little specks of flour or other tiny impurities can encourage crystallization. Especially don't use the flour scoop to measure the sugar for your syrup!
2. Mix the sugar and water in a bowl, then pour without splashing into the pan in which you plan on cooking the syrup. Even though this dirties an extra dish, it keeps dry sugar crystals from getting stuck to the sides of the pan while you are stirring the sugar and water together. Any dry crystals near the syrup's edges will cause trouble later in the process by encouraging more crystals to form near them. If you do get a little dry sugar stuck to the edge of your pan, you can rinse it off by brushing the pan just above the crystal with a clean pastry brush that has been dipped in cold water.
3. Once the syrup is on the heat, don't stir at all until it reaches the correct temperature! It can be hard to resist the temptation, but any sort of agitation of the mixture will increase the chances of crystallization.