Rock Candy Recipes

Old Fashioned Recipes To Make Rock Candy For Delicious Sugar Treats

Dissolve loaf or granulated sugar in water so as to make a thin syrup, suspend linen or cotton strings in the liquid, and let them stand undisturbed in a warm place. As the liquid evaporates, the strings will become covered with beautiful crystals of rock candy.

Dissolve four pounds white sugar in one quart water. To make rock candy, boil this syrup a few moments, allow to cool, and crystallization takes place on the sides of the vessel.

To make other candies, bring the syrup very carefully to such a degree of heat that the "threads," which drop from the spoon when raised into the colder air, will snap like glass. When this stage is reached, add a teaspoon of vinegar or cream of tartar to prevent "graining," and pour into pans.

A brass kettle, if kept perfectly clean, is best for boiling sugar in for confectionery. Dissolve two pounds of white sugar in one pint of water and place this in the kettle over a slow fire for a quarter of an hour. Pour into it a small quantity of gelatin and gum arabic dissolved together. Skim off at once all the impurities that rise to the surface. If you allow the syrup to boil a few moments longer you will have what is called "Rock Candy."

To make other candies, bring the syrup very carefully to such a degree of heat that the "threads" which drop from the spoon when raised into cold air will snap like glass. When this desired stage is reached, add a teaspoonful of vinegar or cream of tartar to prevent granulation, and pour it into pans. To make stick candies, pull and roll into shape with buttered hands.

This is a similar production to nougat, and is made with raw sugar, which is boiled to the "crack." Pour it on an oiled stone, and fill it with sweet almonds, either blanched or not; the almonds are mixed with the sugar by working them into it with the hands, in a similar manner as you would mix anything into a piece of dough. If they were stirred into the sugar in the pan it would grain, which is the reason why it is melted for nougat.

Form the rock into a ball or roll, and make it into a sheet, about two inches thick, by rolling it with a rolling pin. The top may be divided into diamonds or squares by means of a long knife or piece of iron: when it is nearly cold cut it into long narrow pieces with a strong knife and hammer.

To Determine the Crack Stage: Provide a jug of clean cold water, and a piece of round stick. First dip in the water, then in the boiling sugar, and again in the water (this should be performed as speedily as possible); slip the sugar off the stick, still holding it in the water, then press it between the finger and thumb; if it breaks short and crisp, with a slight noise, it is at the crack.

Loaf sugar when boiled, by pulling and making into small rolls, and twisting a little, will make what is called Little Rock, or Snow. By pulling loaf sugar after it is boiled, you can make it as white as snow.