Melissa

Hi Jessie! (And thanks to David for relaying your previous message)
Glad to hear you succeeded in replicating your so persistently sought-after crunchy effect, I presume that the code you cracked turned out to be something like C₆H₁₂O₆ … Dan Brown would be proud of you :-)

The trick you’ve devised makes sense indeed… Since glucose (the ma…[Read more]

Roberto, I wanted to update you on my progress in figuring out my hard candy mystery!!!. So, I tried your suggestion of adding more sugar once it hit 300 degrees. However, it did not work. It just made it more sugary with a coarse texture. However….this is the best part…..I did finally crack the hard candy code!!!!!! After doing some serious…[Read more]

Thanks David. Resolved. When I reviewed the entire process and found one ingredient was not in correct proportion and another, heat level.

No, I looked for forums like this first. Thank you adding my response to Roberto. I was a bit confused when I got your email a while back. He gave me some good information to consider!

It’s very common for recipes to need to be adjusted when scaling. I don’t know why scientifically, but ask anyone who tried to scale their recipe for commercial production, and you’ll hear a similar story.
That being said, it doesn’t seem like you’re scaling it that much, so I’d recommend borrowing someone’s larger ceramic pot and trying it out.…[Read more]

Thanks Roberto! Jessie accidentally responded to your message via email (which came to me). Here’s her response:

Hi Roberto, thank you so much for your response to my post. Italy is a place I’ve always dreamed about visiting. I should’ve been born there because I love all the cuisine, culture, landscape, etc.

I so appreciate your feedback on my…[Read more]

other than trial and error…

<end of previous reply missing>

Try the “brute force” method: add a spoonful of fresh sugar to the mixture when reaching 300°F and see…
Please let me know how it went, pardon me for my english (*undesired*, *unexpectedly*) and greetings from Italy.
Roberto

Hello Jessie,
It looks like you got into the recrystallization phenomenon, that is usually an undesidered (and avoided) effect in hard candy making, but that can unespectedly bring some curious results like the one you got.
As you probably know, the mix of sugars used for hard candy making should always include, together with saccharose (the…[Read more]

I honestly don’t have enough experience with candy making to answer you question. Have you tried going to a local candy shop and asking? I bet they’d be happy to help!