Caramel

Minder

I made a Chocolate Delice following a recipe by Raymond Blanc. It included some caramel hazelnut spears for decoration which were made using plain white sugar heated until caramelised. The hazelnuts are coated in the cooled caramel and pulled to form a tail or spear. They were fine for a few hours but after a while the sugar started to get wet and soft, eventually dissolving completely.

I would like to make them again, is there another sugar I can use that will be more stable at room temperature and more resistant to moisture in the air?

Malari

Doesn't it depend on the heat the sugar reaches when it melts, what it's consistency is like when it sets?

I recently made some salted caramel and got a sugar/candy thermometer so I'd know when to take it off the heat. My first attempt without the thermometer turned it into fudge rather than caramel when it set as I obviously didn't have the temperature right.

Faith

I made caramel once, following the markings on my sugar thermometer, and ended up with rock solid toffee!

I made honeycomb last year and within hours, it went the same way as your caramel, Minder. Was it in a humid or damp room?

Malari

Faith wrote: »

I made caramel once, following the markings on my sugar thermometer, and ended up with rock solid toffee!

I made honeycomb last year and within hours, it went the same way as your caramel, Minder. Was it in a humid or damp room?

Oh dear, maybe it was a fluke! I just used regular caster sugar.

I didn't know moisture affected it either.

Minder

It was a simple burnt sugar caramel, no butter cream or water added. It was kept in the kitchen at my sister-in-law's at a family gathering and it was quite humid. I know that isomalt is humid resistant but it's also very difficult to caramelise. So I suppose a mixture of isomalt and caster sugar might make a better caramel that is less likely to dissolve.

WildRosie

I'd be pretty sure the humidity was your problem. If you're making them again keep them somewhere cool and dry and don't use a non stick pan (stops the sugar caramelising).

Magic Monkey

Humidity is the problem. Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it attracts water from the environment, which is why caramel decorations don't last long. Storing them in between layers of silicone baking paper in an air-tight container with sachets of silica gel help to preserve them.

Otherwise, the only other tips I can suggest are to make a dry, not wet, caramel, and ensure it's between 160-180c. You can also use "Nougasec" to prolong the shelf life, but the 50:50 sucrose:isomalt idea is a more convenient method.