Friday, September 13, 2013

Now what is . . . ..

Now what is . . . .. 
1 Hard-Ball Stage refers to a specific temperature range when cooking sugar syrups. Hard-Ball Stage occurs at 250-266 degrees. This stage can be determined by dropping a spoonful of hot syrup into a bowl of very cold water. In the water, use your fingers to gather the cooled syrup into a ball. If hard-ball stage has been reached, the syrup will hold its ball shape and deform only slightly with very firm pressure. The ball will be quite sticky to the touch.
2
Soft-ball stage refers to a specific temperature range when cooking sugar syrups. Soft-Ball Stage occurs at 235-245 degrees. This stage can be determined by dropping a spoonful of hot syrup into a bowl of very cold water. In the water, use your fingers to gather the cooled syrup into a ball. If it has reached soft-ball stage, the syrup easily forms a ball while in the cold water, but flattens once removed from the water.
3
Hard-Crack Stage refers to a specific temperature range when cooking sugar syrups. Hard-Crack Stage occurs at 300-310 degrees. This stage can be determined by dropping a spoonful of hot syrup into a bowl of very cold water. Remove the candy from the water and attempt to bend it. If hard-crack stage has been reached, the syrup will form brittle threads in the water, and will crack if you try to mold it.
4
Soft-crack stage refers to a specific temperature range when cooking sugar syrups. Soft-Crack Stage occurs at 270-290 degrees. This stage can be determined by dropping a spoonful of hot syrup into a bowl of very cold water. Remove the candy from the water and pull it apart between your fingers. Soft-crack stage has been reached when the syrup forms firm but pliable threads.
5
Firm-Ball Stage occurs at 245-250 degrees. This stage can be determined by dropping a spoonful of hot syrup into a bowl of very cold water. In the water, use your fingers to gather the cooled syrup into a ball. If it has reached firm-ball stage, it will feel firm and pliable but still slightly sticky, and will retain its shape when removed from the water but will quickly lose its shape at room temperature.
6
Caramel stage occurs at 320-350 degrees F and can be determined visually because the sugar will progress from a light golden color (315-320 degrees) to a golden brown caramel (350 degrees). If the temperature gets higher than 350 degrees, the sugar will burn, turn very dark, and have a distinctive, unpleasant burnt taste. Sugar burns quickly in the upper temperature range, so work quickly and do not neglect your boiling syrup.

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