I lost my mind tonight, on candy...

[OneLegJohn]

I tried making candy tonight. I am way too tired to make good decisions. I lost track of my cooling temp doing something else. I attempted to run the candy syrup, cooled to 150F, through the candy machine. Not good, I have bricks of candy. Two questions, 1) the next time that happens, can I just reheat to 190F instead of panicking? 2) can I reheat my brick mistakes back into syrup and try to make candy with it again? The inverted sugar was 38... perfect.

[maple2]

yes to both. mite come out a little grainier, though. try cooling to 220. the longer it spins, the lighter the candy.

[Father & Son]

I've had good luck redoing failed batches of candy (and I have had plenty) by breaking up the pieces and adding just a small amont of syrup. This puts a little liquid in the pan until the pieces start melting.

Jim

[OneLegJohn]

Thanks for all of your help. I put a little water back in and remelted the failed batch right back to molten goodness. The invert sugar was 42. I used the steam kettle to reheat this time and it turned out pretty good. However, I made another batch and toward the end it started crystalizing on me right in the pig. The candy seemed to stick in the bottom of the molds, while the candy sort of crumbled as I pulled them out. Is this a symptom of a rainy day?

[wiam]

Did you rinse the pig between batches?

[OneLegJohn]

Honestly, I can't remember. But I was wondering if those sugar crystals would cause problems... Would it prevent the candy from getting hard?

[wiam]

No, but it could cause more crystals in the pig.

[Sugarmaker]

Nate,
Sounds about like me! We always have fun making candy. Right Jim (Father and Son)? Cheryl knows too. We usually run some out the back of the trough.
I have had pretty good luck (knock on wood) making candy recently. I generally cool to 205 ish.
I don't try to make my failed batches back into candy. they usually go towards making sugar.
Regards,
Chris