What I love most about smart articles is passages like this:
“Especially often, the caramelization technique is used in the confectionery business, sometimes reaching the heights of real art, which are not only inaccessible to a non-professional, but simply incomprehensible. To work with confectionery caramel at this level requires many years of daily practice, a mountain of special equipment and knowledge of some areas of chemistry is desirable.

Since the vast majority of us who spend hours daily at our kitchen stove have neither special education nor a mountain of special equipment, we will try to do it on our own. In the end, the eyes are afraid - the hands are doing. If it doesn't work the first time, we'll try again.

So. What does caramelized mean? Discarding special terminology, let's just say - it melts. This happens at different temperatures and is achieved in different ways. For starters, a few simple rules.

• Dishes (frying pan, saucepan) and a steel spoon - or a wooden, silicone spatula - for stirring must be absolutely clean. Because the smallest particles of food debris or garbage will immediately begin to re-crystallize the melting sugar around them.
• We do not use dishes with a Teflon or other coating, which are contraindicated for scratches, since grains of sugar will provide these same scratches to it.
• And let's be careful! Hot syrup has a temperature of 150-190 °, it will take a long time to treat even small burns. And if you need to add, for example, cream or another liquid to the syrup, we are doubly careful: the foam will be stormy, it may splash out. We heat the liquids in advance and pour in a thin stream at the edge of the dish, and not in the middle.

Dry way.
We heat a saucepan (frying pan) with a wide thick bottom and high walls over medium heat. Pour in some sugar and let it melt. Next, add sugar in small portions, each after the previous one has melted. Do not forget to stir and cook until the color we need.

wet way.
Put the sugar in a bowl all at once and add water, mix. Sugar should, after mixing, resemble wet sand in consistency. The maximum amount of water is 30% by weight of sugar. In order to prevent a new crystallization of the melted sugar, you can add a little lemon juice, or citric acid, or vinegar, corn syrup. Moreover, literally 1-2 drops of lemon juice are enough for a glass of sugar.

We put the pan (frying pan) on a large fire and constantly stir the wet sugar until it boils and dissolves completely. As soon as the mixture boils, stop stirring it and remove all possible impurities from the surface. To make the caramelization go more evenly, take the handle, slightly tilt the pan and shake it in a circular motion.
In advance, put a mug of cold water and a culinary brush next to the stove, best of all - silicone. While the sugar is melting, periodically we pass with a moistened brush along the walls of the pan or pan. On the hot walls, the liquid from the syrup quickly evaporates, new sugar crystals form. We do not need this, so with the help of a brush we keep the walls clean until the end of the process.

caramel color changing - depending on the duration and temperature of heating - from light yellow to brown. The darker, the more burnt sugar flavor.
There is a good trick: no matter what method of caramelization we use - a little earlier than the caramel reaches the color we need, remove the dishes from the heat and put them in cold water with ice. The fact is that sugar perfectly holds the temperature, and if the process is not stopped by such a radical method, the sugar may darken or even burn. In any case, remove the dishes from the fire a little earlier than the syrup acquires the color we need - it will be achieved due to residual heat.

When heated, sugar liquefies and changes its texture. Those. at first it becomes sticky (strings stretch behind the spoon), and later it forms “balls”. The following is a detailed description of the stages of changing the syrup during caramelization and its application at each stage.

simple syrup (not particularly related to caramelization, but useful to know).
Just a mixture of sugar with enough water, which we heated until the sugar was completely dissolved. You can add any alcoholic drinks to your taste, spices and let stand under the lid for 15-20 minutes. Such a syrup is good for cooking fruits, soaking biscuits, greasing puff products.

Enveloping.
This stage of caramelization occurs at 100°. Clear syrup, almost boiled. Quickly dipping a slotted spoon into it and immediately taking it out, we will see that the syrup “enveloped” its entire surface. If we are going to cook fruit in syrup, this is what we need ..

Stage "little thread" - this is a temperature of 103-105 °. We can repeat (carefully!) the reception of professionals: we dip the thumb and forefinger folded together into cold water and then very quickly into the syrup. You can just take a little in a spoon. Slowly spreading the fingers, we will see that short threads about 3 mm wide stretch between them. They break quickly. Such a syrup is needed to prepare, for example, almond pastes.

big thread (at 106-110°).
It is, of course, stronger and wider - about 5 mm. We prepare this syrup if the recipe simply says “sugar syrup” - without clarification. It is needed for icing and buttercreams.

little gem (110-112°).
A stage that occurs a few minutes after the previous one, when bubbles begin to appear on the surface of the syrup. We collect a little in a spoon, grab it with wet fingers - a wider thread forms between them. Used for some types of nougat.

big pearl , or soufflé (113-115°).
At this stage, the thread between the fingers has a width of up to 2 cm. And if you lower the slotted spoon into the syrup, remove it and blow on it, we will get bubbles on the reverse side. This type of syrup is needed for cooking jam, making candied fruits and chestnuts, glaze.

Small - or soft -ball(116-118°).
Our syrup has clearly thickened, if you take it in a spoon and dip it in cold water - it will curl up into a small ball. The syrup at this stage is also good for jams, but also for jellies, soft caramel and nougat.

Large - or hard - ball (121-124°). The temperature is slightly higher, and therefore a harder ball is formed. Jams, sugar decorations, sweets and caramels are the purpose of the syrup.

Light - or soft - crunch (129-135°).
At this stage, drops of syrup, dipped in cold water, harden instantly. We crack it - and the fragments of the ball immediately stick to the teeth. But what toffees are obtained!

hard crunch (149-150°).
Now the bitten ball no longer sticks to the teeth. Around the edges of the dish, the syrup begins to turn pale yellow. If we are going to prepare lollipops, twisted sugar decorations, icing - it's time to remove from heat and put in cold water, otherwise it will be caramel.

light caramel (151-160°).
There is practically no water left in the syrup, it quickly begins to turn into candy and caramel. From pale yellow, the syrup turns golden and brown. The most it is for caramel cream, sweets, puddings, icing.

Brown - or dark - caramel (166-175°).
Last stage. Oddly enough, dark caramel loses its sweet taste. Therefore, when cooking on the basis of dark caramel, you have to add sugar. Burnt oil is used most of all for coloring sauces, broths, baked goods and confectionery.
At 190°, sugar begins to burn and smoke.
If we prepared caramel for homemade sweets, pour it into molds greased with butter and let it harden. We hope that this description will help to navigate the process of sugar caramelization for those who are not familiar with it yet.

There are recipes in which sugar for caramelization is not mixed with water, but with butter or vegetable oil. So often caramelized, fish, pieces of vegetables and especially for pies (Tarte Tatin).

Some juicy fruits are caramelized in a heated frying pan without oil, just constantly stirred so that the sugar does not burn. Such caramelization lasts 5-7 minutes, and pieces of fruit acquire a golden hue and caramel taste.

Finishing the topic of caramelization, I will only add that any theory, as you know, is verified by practice. So let's get up to the stove - and try. And everything will turn out - albeit not the first time.

P.S. If you have something to add on the topic - be sure to write.

It's time to talk about the technology of sugar caramelization as such. There are a lot of recipes where it is required, so let's sort out the information, understand the methods and stages of sugar caramelization.

So. What does it mean that sugar caramelizes? Discarding special terminology, let's just say - it melts. This happens at different temperatures and is achieved in different ways.

For starters, a few simple rules.

• Dishes (frying pan, saucepan) and a steel spoon - or a wooden, silicone spatula - for stirring must be absolutely clean. Because the smallest particles of food debris or garbage will immediately begin to re-crystallize the melting sugar around them.


• We do not use dishes with a Teflon or other coating, which are contraindicated for scratches, since grains of sugar will provide these same scratches to it.


• And let's be careful! Hot syrup has a temperature of 150-190 °, it will take a long time to treat even small burns. And if you need to add, for example, cream or another liquid to the syrup, we are doubly careful: the foam will be stormy, it may splash out. We heat the liquids in advance and pour in a thin stream at the edge of the dish, and not in the middle.

Sugar can be caramelized dry and wet methods.

Dry way.

We heat a saucepan (frying pan) with a wide thick bottom and high walls over medium heat. Pour in some sugar and let it melt. Next, add sugar in small portions, each after the previous one has melted. Do not forget to stir and cook until the color we need.

wet way.

Put the sugar in a bowl all at once and add water, mix. Sugar should, after mixing, resemble wet sand in consistency. The maximum amount of water is 30% by weight of sugar. In order to prevent a new crystallization of the melted sugar, you can add a little lemon juice, or citric acid, or vinegar, corn syrup. Moreover, literally 1-2 drops of lemon juice are enough for a glass of sugar.

We put the pan (frying pan) on a large fire and constantly stir the wet sugar until it boils and dissolves completely. As soon as the mixture boils, stop stirring it and remove all possible impurities from the surface.

To make the caramelization go more evenly, take the handle, slightly tilt the pan and shake it in a circular motion.

In advance, put a mug of cold water and a culinary brush next to the stove, best of all - silicone. While the sugar is melting, periodically we pass with a moistened brush along the walls of the pan or pan. On the hot walls, the liquid from the syrup quickly evaporates, new sugar crystals form. We do not need this, so with the help of a brush we keep the walls clean until the end of the process.

caramel color changing - depending on the duration and temperature of heating - from light yellow to brown. The darker, the more burnt sugar flavor.

There is a good trick: no matter what method of caramelization we use - a little earlier than the caramel reaches the color we need, remove the dishes from the heat and put them in cold water with ice. The fact is that sugar perfectly holds the temperature, and if the process is not stopped by such a radical method, the sugar may darken or even burn.

In any case, remove the dishes from the fire a little earlier than the syrup acquires the color we need - it will be achieved due to residual heat.

When heated, sugar liquefies and changes its texture. Those. at first it becomes sticky (strings stretch behind the spoon), and later it forms “balls”. The following is a detailed description of the stages of changing the syrup during caramelization and its application at each stage.

simple syrup (not particularly related to caramelization, but useful to know).

Just a mixture of sugar with enough water, which we heated until the sugar was completely dissolved. You can add any alcoholic drinks to your taste, spices and let stand under the lid for 15-20 minutes. Such a syrup is good for cooking fruits, soaking biscuits, greasing puff products.

Enveloping.

This stage of caramelization occurs at 100°. Clear syrup, almost boiled. Quickly dipping a slotted spoon into it and immediately taking it out, we will see that the syrup “enveloped” its entire surface. If we are going to cook fruit in syrup, this is what we need ..

Stage "little thread" - this is a temperature of 103-105 °. We can repeat (carefully!) the reception of professionals: we dip the thumb and forefinger folded together into cold water and then very quickly into the syrup. You can just take a little in a spoon. Slowly spreading the fingers, we will see that short threads about 3 mm wide stretch between them. They break quickly. Such a syrup is needed to prepare, for example, almond pastes.

big thread (at 106-110°).

It is, of course, stronger and wider - about 5 mm. We prepare this syrup if the recipe simply says “sugar syrup” - without clarification. It is needed for icing and buttercreams.

little gem (110-112°).

A stage that occurs a few minutes after the previous one, when bubbles begin to appear on the surface of the syrup. We collect a little in a spoon, grab it with wet fingers - a wider thread forms between them. Used for some types of nougat.

big pearl , or soufflé (113-115°).

At this stage, the thread between the fingers has a width of up to 2 cm. And if you lower the slotted spoon into the syrup, remove it and blow on it, we will get bubbles on the reverse side. This type of syrup is needed for cooking jam, making candied fruits and chestnuts, glaze.

Small - or soft -ball(116-118°).

Our syrup has clearly thickened, if you take it in a spoon and dip it in cold water - it will curl up into a small ball. The syrup at this stage is also good for jams, but also for jellies, soft caramel and nougat.

Large - or hard - ball (121-124°). The temperature is slightly higher, and therefore a harder ball is formed. Jams, sugar decorations, sweets and caramels are the purpose of the syrup.

Light - or soft - crunch (129-135°).

At this stage, drops of syrup, dipped in cold water, harden instantly. We crack it - and the fragments of the ball immediately stick to the teeth. But what toffees are obtained!

hard crunch (149-150°).

Now the bitten ball no longer sticks to the teeth. Around the edges of the dish, the syrup begins to turn pale yellow. If we are going to prepare lollipops, twisted sugar decorations, icing - it's time to remove from heat and put in cold water, otherwise it will be caramel.

light caramel (151-160°).

There is practically no water left in the syrup, it quickly begins to turn into candy and caramel. From pale yellow, the syrup turns golden and brown. The most it is for caramel cream, sweets, puddings, icing.

Brown - or dark - caramel (166-175°).

Last stage. Oddly enough, dark caramel loses its sweet taste. Therefore, when cooking on the basis of dark caramel, you have to add sugar. Burnt oil is used most of all for coloring sauces, broths, baked goods and confectionery.

At 190°, sugar begins to burn and smoke.

If we prepared caramel for homemade sweets, pour it into molds greased with butter and let it harden.

We hope that this description will help to navigate the process of sugar caramelization for those who are not familiar with it yet.

There are recipes in which sugar for caramelization is not mixed with water, but with butter or vegetable oil. This is how meat, fish, pieces of vegetables and fruits are often caramelized, especially for Tarte Tatin pies.

Some juicy fruits are caramelized in a heated frying pan without oil, just constantly stirred so that the sugar does not burn. Such caramelization lasts 5-7 minutes, and pieces of fruit acquire a golden hue and caramel taste.

Finishing the topic of caramelization, I will only add that any theory, as you know, is verified by practice. So let's get up to the stove - and try. And everything will turn out - albeit not the first time.

Sometimes, to make an interesting sweet sauce for desserts or just to make caramel, there is a need to melt sugar. The whole procedure is simple and does not take much time, however, there are some consequences, for example, burnt dishes or a dirty stove, which are possible if certain rules for heating sugar are not followed. Let's consider them in more detail.

The whole process will not take even an hour, and the tools and products that are needed for it are only sugar and a saucepan.

sugar melting process

Sometimes a recipe for a dish involves melting sugar with something, and if nothing specific is written, then it is better to melt the sugar first, and then add the rest of the ingredients.

To melt sugar, you must constantly be near the stove, so you will have to put aside all extraneous matters and do only that. And since sugar also melts poorly, you will have to put some effort and patience in order to eventually get the desired consistency.

If you have never practiced melting sugar before, take for this purpose that pan or ladle, which in which case it will not be a pity to throw it away. Note that earlier they used to heat sugar in aluminum containers, but now it is quite possible and convenient to use dishes with a non-stick coating.

Let's start melting. To begin with, pour sugar on the bottom, level it and put it on a small fire, do not immediately interfere, otherwise it will crystallize. Only after most of it is melted, you can stir, but experienced housewives recommend simply rocking the container in different directions. In this case, the burning of the surface is minimized and the sugar that has not melted will begin to do so. If you do without stirring, the resulting caramel will be transparent and clean. After all the sugar has melted and you have obtained the desired consistency, you must turn off the fire.

After pouring the caramel, by the way, if you are making candies, do not forget to grease the molds with oil, in this case, future caramels and candies can be easily removed from the molds. So, as soon as the melted sugar is poured, pour a little milk into a saucepan or ladle and put it on fire. In this case, the adhering sugar will melt a little and mix with milk, which will allow you not to scrape it off later from the sides of the container. Well, anyone can knock out milk, it will become not only useful, but also sweet, which will delight children very much.

How to beat softened butter with sugar

Often in recipes there is an expression "whipping butter with sugar." This may be necessary for the preparation of a fluffy and delicate butter cream or for the preparation of some kind of butter-based pastry.

But sometimes housewives complain that the butter does not whip well, that the mass is not lush, and the sugar does not want to completely dissolve. In order for whipping butter with sugar to turn into a pleasant process with an excellent result, consider some of the nuances:

For whipping, use high quality natural butter;

Beat butter at room temperature;

Add sugar to butter gradually. This will allow the sugar to completely dissolve;

Use premium sugar. It has the best consistency for whipping. This sugar has medium crystals and during whipping, due to this, it saturates the cream with air (unlike powdered sugar). In this case, the volume of the cream doubles;

From time to time, clean the edges of the whipping container with a culinary spatula and send the oil adhering to the walls into the cream for even preparation of the cream;

Don't beat the butter and sugar for too long. As soon as the mass becomes lush and creamy, stop beating.

To prepare caramel, various kinds of sauces and some other gastronomic delicacies, it may be necessary to melt sugar. The procedure itself is not difficult, but its acceptable unpleasant results often spoil all the pleasure of cooking. A few primitive steps help to avoid the need to wash the stove and peel the pan.

You will need

• granulated sugar;
• saucepan with a thick bottom.

Instruction

1. Choose the method by which you will drown the sugar, depending on the product for which you need it. In some cases, you may need additional ingredients - cream, butter, water. Often this is stated in the recipe, but not always. In order not to be mistaken, having met the phrase “melt sugar” in the recipe, try to clarify with the author what he had in mind. If this is not possible, follow the general rule: first melt the sugar without any additional ingredients. After that, add orange juice (for sauce), butter or cream, water. If the sugar crystallizes, continue to melt it until completely dissolved.

2. Take time to melt the sugar. The fact is that this procedure requires attention, you will have to watch the pan piercingly. Sugar melts rather reluctantly, and only patience and constant control will allow you to end up with the desired clear chestnut viscous mass.

3. Choose dishes that you will not be sorry to throw away if you have never melted sugar before. There are two types of kitchen utensils in which experienced housewives often cook caramel: these are aluminum kitchens or products with a thick bottom and non-stick coating. If the latter is an invention of our time, then with the support of aluminum utensils, your grandmothers also delighted children with home-made candies.

4. Sprinkle the sugar in an even layer over the surface. Turn on medium heat and watch as the sand begins to melt. Do not stir it, on the contrary, it will crystallize. Later, after a huge part of the mixture becomes watery, you can start stirring it a little, but it’s easier to tilt the pan from side to side so that the coming caramel does not burn. If possible, avoid these actions - this way you will get a particularly clean and transparent toffee. Once your sugar is runny and golden, turn off the heat.

5. Add milk to the saucepan after pouring the melted sugar out of it and warm it up a little on the fire so that you do not have to scrape the sides of the pan. The milk dissolves the rest of the hardened caramel, which, in turn, gives it a nice sweet taste. Any child will gladly drink such caramel milk.