How to test for stages of sugar syrup (2024)

FAQs

How to test for stages of sugar syrup? ›

Using a clean spoon, carefully take a little of the syrup and drop it into the bowl of cold water. Leave to cool for a moment then pick up the ball of syrup. If it's pliable, sticky and can be moulded in your fingers easily, it has reached the soft ball stage and the syrup can be used to make fudge and marzipan.

Soft Crack Stage: The bubbles on the top of the syrup become smaller, thicker and much closer together. With a clean spoon, when the syrup dropped into cold water it separates into hard but pliable threads. The threads will bend slightly before breaking.

Soft Ball

To test your candy temperature, you'll want a bowl of cool water to drip the sugar into. You'll know you've reached the soft ball stage when the sugar forms a small ball in the water. The ball will quickly flatten after a few moments of handling as it warms in your hand.

When sugar is completely dissolved in a liquid, it is no longer visible and there is no grainy texture when the liquid is stirred or agitated. To determine this, look for any undissolved sugar granules in the liquid or taste the liquid for any grainy or gritty sensations.

Using a clean spoon, carefully take a little of the syrup and drop it into the bowl of cold water. Leave to cool for a moment then pick up the ball of syrup. If it's pliable, sticky and can be moulded in your fingers easily, it has reached the soft ball stage and the syrup can be used to make fudge and marzipan.

Hard-crack stage occurs at 300 to 310 F. If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can use the cold water test in a pinch: Drop a spoonful of hot syrup into cold water, then remove the candy from the water and attempt to bend it.

When the syrup starts to run off the spoon in a sheet or a stream, then it's almost done. It will also start to look more like syrup and less like sap at this point. If you think the syrup is done, take it off the fire and let it cool a bit. As it cools it should start to thicken if it has turned into syrup.

Hard-crack Stage – You've reached this stage when your sugar mixture reaches 300 to 310 degrees. There will be almost no water left, and when dropped in cold water, the sugar will harden in solid, brittle threads. This sugar will be extremely hot and can be used in creating lollipops, toffee and hard candy.

Next is soft-crack stage, this happens between 270-290oF, sugar concentration is 95%, and forms solid, flexible threads. Hard-crack stage occurs between 300-310oF, sugar concentration is around 99%, and makes hard, brittle threads when dropped in water.

How long does it take to get to the hard crack stage? ›

Continue boiling, uncovered, not stirring the mixture but shaking the saucepan occasionally to distribute the heat as the mixture turns amber in about 9 minutes, then darker amber as it registers 305 degrees on the thermometer (hard-crack stage ), about 3 minutes longer.

Combine your sugar and water off the heat, and stir it just until the sugar is evenly moistened. Avoid stirring the sugar if at all possible once you put it on the stove. Agitation can cause the sugar to crystallize.

Preparation of syrup:

Broadly stated, these methods are a) Solution of the ingredients with the aid of heat. b) Solution of the ingredients by agitation without the use of heat or the simple admixture of liquid components. c) Addition of sucrose to a prepared medicated liquid or to a flavored liquid.

Sugar stages are the different levels of consistency that sugar reaches when it is heated. During this process, the sugar changes in terms of texture, colour, and taste, depending on the temperature, time and proportion of water and sugar.