Clear Look with Pulled Sugar

[cakerookie]

I do some pulled sugar. But I have someone that wants pulled sugar to look like a cd. How would I achieve a cd look with pulled sugar? Would it be best to make it clear, and how do I get a clear look with pulled suagr?

Never mind folks I got it> Appreciate it.

[panini]

cakerookie,
When you have something like that, maybe you could post the answer so those reading can learn. I'm going to assume you're going to pour. Let us know and we always love pics.
Pan

[cakerookie]

Sorry, I will let you know how it turns out.

[Zukerig]

The ascorbic acid in fresh lemon juice should help achieve a translucent sugar.

[cakerookie]

Thanks Chef. Did'nt Think About That. How Much Would You Add To A Recipe That Yields 3 Cups?

[Zukerig]

It is critical to determine at which temperature stage you’re cooking the pulled sugar. The higher the temperature achieved, the darker the color. The light-caramel stage is optimum for your spun-sugar project. The sugar will lighten in color, the more it’s pulled.

Interestingly, you can experiment by adding small amounts of blue food coloring (in powdered form) to the clear sugar to obtain a whitish result. Be attentive to not overworking the spun sugar, as that will build up crystallization – a bane of sugarcraft.

As for the lemon juice, it’s quite weak in terms of acidity compared with, for example, cream of tartar.

Are you currently working in a region with a high humidex?

[cakerookie]

Yeah I am afraid I am. Down south in the USA kinda humid here. Should I add the lemon juice before the mixture begins to boil or add it with the dry ingredients? I usually pull the mixture off of the heat around 297 F simply because the temperature of the sugar will continue to rise gradually even after coming off the heat. This part is rather confusing because every boiled sugar recipe I have or have read has a different point at which to remove the sugar from the heat. I have found 297 works best for me so that is what I use. I know sugar starts to carmelize at 320 so I do not want to live dangerously. Appreciate your time in responding to my posts it means a lot.
I like your proverb. OK if I use it sometime?

[panini]

cakerookie,
Are you plunging the sugar when you take it off the heat to slow the cooking process or are you going right to the marble? How are you making out achieving clear after pulling. Mine akways gets opaque. I can get clear when I pour.
I know your in a humid place so I assume your at about 20-25% on the glucose. I'm humid here sometimes and I find that adding the glucose when I'm at 120 or so and not in the beginning keeps the sugar malible sp?. I used to have many problems in the past because I was super saturating my sugar using too much glucose. It either got gluie or melted completely.

Zukerig,
You are putting the powdered coloring right into the sugar without a slurry?
I still use milkvise sp? for white. Also, can you still stay clear and pull?

All this keeping in mind I'm using a medium coarse sugar and not isolmalt.
thanks,pan

[panini]

CakeRookie,
It all makes sense to me. I really enjoy reading anything about this subjest. I know it seems that I may ask some basic questions, that's because I don't hardly get a chance to create anymore. I was heavy into sugar in the mid 80's when sugar showpieces were a requirement of Exec. Pastry Chefs. Now it is mostly play or to fill a special request. I'm so old that I have never formally switched over to isomalt as most of the younger chefs have. Probably the same reason I'm still hitting persimon woods when golfing.
Sugar is so far, few, and in between that last week I set up, and one of my bladders was cracked and a few of my Maggfleur flower molds have become porous and won't pop.
Stay with it and pass on as much as you learn to keep this art form alive.
I just didn't know if someone developed a way to pull and stay clear. If I remember correctly heating glucose does not change the makeup where as it will change the light corn syrup. I think the only reason for the use is to prevent crystalizing by encapsulating the grains of sugar. I do know that it is best to use a medium coarse sugar. To fine and it gets lumpy inhibiting the disolve. To large and you have to add more water for the disolve. Anyway, I won't bore you further. Posts some pics if you get a chance.
Pan
PS Are they still using resin molds for pieces?

[chrose]

Originally Posted by cakerookie

Panini
You will not achieve a clear look when you are pulling the sugar because you are introducing air into the pulled sugar when you are pulling it.

I have been watching and reading this thread and I'm not sure I agree on several things being said, but my memory isn't good enough to contradict some things without checking my original notes. That being said though I have to take issue with this particular statement.
The reason you do not get a "clear look" when pulling sugar is the fact that you are not pulling air into the sugar when pulling it. In fact when you are pulling the sugar you are cooling it a little at a time. The opaqueness and shinyness that you are seeing is light reflecting off the thousands of microscopic crystals that are forming as it cools. These are not the same hydroscopic crystals that will eat your sugar and turn it into so much dust over time.

Here's a couple of bad scans. I don't quite have a handle on the scanning features of my printer just yet

Fruit basket and flower hoop

Horse and Lobster

Peacock and Parrots

[cakerookie]

OK, I will be the first to admit being wrong is not always bad, not good either. Please give me more details about this chemical stuff. I have not gotten that in depth into it yet,because I do not want to mislead anyone. But everything I said wasn't wrong, was it? Hey I am willing to accept criticism if someone else can show me the right way I am all for it. Thanks for correcting me. I read that some where but don't remember where. Might have gotten it confused with something else though. And I deleted the air thing just so I do not mislead anyone else.

[panini]

COACH!!!!
There you go again. You go so far over my head I hear the sound barrier boom . microscopic, hydroscopic, endoscopic, philanthropic, myoptic, helicoptic.
You have a wealth of knowledge, don't take issue, contradict. Let it flow. That's what this place is all about. I'm just an old baker talking sugar. If you didn't jump in I would feel cheated.
We pull the sugar to make and keep it malliable, right? It cools while doing this. We pour sugar and just let it cool.
BTW My POS PC couldn't open those scans.
I always understood that color was useless without light. WOW nice play by KC.
Anyway Chrose, keep it coming, you always enlighten me.
Pan

[cape chef]

I admire the expertise of you all,

Going back to the original question.Can you pull sugar and keep it clear? I thought that the air added during pulling & cooling makes the sugar opaque.

What about isamalt? Do any of you use it? What are your thoughts?

[panini]

CC,
I'm thinking pulling doesn't incorperate air into the sugar. It is quite dense and the fact that the sugar itself creates a barrier against the air when you blow it leads me to believe this. I'm thinking that you are actually changing the makeup of the sugar by streaching it. The invert sugar coats each and every individual grain of sugar. That's what gives it the stretch. awh, what the heck to I know

[phatch]

I had heard that the glass ware in movie stunts was sugar. So if the fight calls for lots of breaking glas on people, it's a sugar item, not glass.

This might help?

http://reading.indiana.edu/www/famre...07/stunts.html

Phil