Failed Sugar Attempt

I was making some granulated sugar this morning with amber rich syrup I had left over from 2015. I have made sugar before with good results but this time I wound up with clumpy, pasty sugar. It was more like dry, crumbly, clumpy cookie dough than granulated sugar.

Then, I decided to make another attempt with dark syrup I made in Feb. 2016. I cooked it to about 258F and stirred right away. It came out beautiful. The best batch I have ever made.

So what went wrong in the failed batch? I cooked that batch by accident to 265F and let it cool to about 200F, then stirred.

I do not believe it was from the temperature. I have made sugar at different temperatures. I have had a batch do that. I think invert sugar might be off. When it happens to me I just don't try confections with that batch of syrup again.

Why let it cool. Start stirring right away. It could be the invert but if was amber I would be suprised. Only syrup I have had trouble making sugar from was commerical.

Temperature too high. We keep it down to 254. The higher you go the faster and more this will happen. If it were an invert problem you would have crystallization problems, which you didn't. Cooler temperatures mean a little more stirring, but less unbreakable clumping. Lower temperatures allow you enough stir time to successfully break up those clumps. At higher temps those clumps are like rocks. We take ours to 254 plus or minus depending on the syrup and weather. We stir immediately after boiling and then immediately it gets pushed through a screen. We can get 100% through the screen this way. If temps are higher we will have a percentage that will not go through. The higher the temp, the less that will go through. We are pushing, smearing it through the screen, not just shaking it.

Thanks. Seems like a lower temp. will do the trick. I also liked stirring right away rather than waiting to cool to 200F.