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Today I was brewing a candi sugar. Recipe I use is simple: unrefined beet sugar, white sugar (for cost saving), a pinch of dry malt extract for Millard reactions, and water just to dissolve it all. Then heat to 120 — 130°C, keep at this range for an hour or so, heat to 150°C, pour on baking paper and let it cool.

Previous time result was like a brown glass. Smooth. And making it was straightforward, it stayed liquid all the time, from start to finish.

This time when I reached around 130°C, sugar suddenly started to solidify, formed thick mass and big solid chunks. I added hot water to keep it from burning, tried to keep it closer to 120°C, but this happened again. Result has less rich taste and is not so transparent. And of course brighter, because I kept it, on average, at lower temperature, but colour I can easily work around in finished product.

What might be the reason for this difference? Using more % of unrefined cane sugar could cause this? Original Belgian candi is 100% unrefined, so I expected it to be better. Or maybe going too fast with heating? I used pot better suited for induction this time. Or anything else I should think of?

photo of my sugar

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  • "how to fix it" might be my follow up question, so please concentrate on what I messed up and what to do differently, not on saving what I have.
    – Mołot
    Dec 3, 2016 at 18:53
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    Candy is generally spelled with a y. Is "candi" something particular? or merely a misspelling?
    – Catija
    Dec 3, 2016 at 19:11
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    @Catija en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candi_sugar - candi basically means candy but it's spelled with i in this particular name. Don't know why, don't really care.
    – Mołot
    Dec 3, 2016 at 19:14
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    Might be related to German Kandiszucker (a caramellized rock sugar popular to have in black tea) :) Dec 14, 2016 at 16:16

1 Answer 1

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I think you heated the sugar too quickly. Try again with a slower increase in temperature and you should have better results.

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