making sugar

[wnybassman]

I have had the best luck with the tip of the probe about an 1/8" above the bottom of the pan, and at least 1/2" to 3/4" of the probe in the syrup.

[eastky]

Thanks everyone for the links, I am going to order a digital bbq one with a probe, I think it will make the process a lot easier

[tbone1]

When I did small batches in the kitchen I just used a Taylor candy thermometer. For larger batches I used a BBQ thermometer with a probe.

I actually found it easier to a gallon at a time in a tall pot as opposed to a quart. Getting the boil going was key. I would put the burners on high and watch the temp until it got to around 212 and then cut the burner back until it started boiling and immediately put a couple of drops of defoamer and waited for the whole pan to get to a rolling boil. I then increased the heat slowly. I found that careful process helped me avoid it boiling over. I also found that bringing the temp to 270 helped avoid extra mixing or the batch turning to a lump of sugar.

270 degrees?? That seems super hot, but if it solves my issue of my sugar "getting hard" too fast to pour in my moulds, great.. does anyone else go to 270? Thanks

[DaveB]

270 degrees?? That seems super hot, but if it solves my issue of my sugar "getting hard" too fast to pour in my moulds, great.. does anyone else go to 270? Thanks

Are you talking about granulated maple sugar or maple candies? This was back when I was making hundreds of pounds of granulated maple sugar for a client and I had a double CDL sugar maker. You pour the sugar into the mixer and it would start churning. I noticed that at lower temps it would churn for a while before becoming sugar. As I increased the temp it took less time. I was trying to save time. If you're talking about molds, I'm wondering if you're talking about candy. I'm not sure what correct temp is for that. I know there's a fine line between it hardening up too hard before getting it in the mold though.

[Pdiamond]

The temperature for maple candy is 235 degrees.

[wiam]

We go to 235° for cream. Molded candy to 245°

[wobbletop]

I use a thermoworks thermometer and just made a batch of maple sugar a couple weeks ago with 2 year old syrup. We went to 265-268 (the temp was jumping around a bit) and it came out pretty good. We used an electric whisk to mix it while cooling down.

The unexpected was the amount of sugar dust floating around and covering a lot of the kitchen.

[TheNamelessPoet]

270 degrees?? That seems super hot, but if it solves my issue of my sugar "getting hard" too fast to pour in my molds, great.. does anyone else go to 270? Thanks

I made some for the 1st time last week. I went to 260, but that was for granulated, 260 into bolds huh? Interesting, my book says about 35 degrees above boiling for candy, but then again it depends what you are trying to make :-)