Cooking sugar


Cooking sugar
Cooking sugar, which is one of the basics of patisserie and sweet-making, is a delicate operation in which sugar is heated from 100°C or 212°F to 180°C or 356°F. Here is some information on this tricky subject.

[Translator's note: the terms used below correspond to the French tradition, as often used by English-speaking chefs, but there are other stages and terms in other traditions. Best to use a thermometer, and be guided by temperature, as the English terms commonly used in domestic cooking cover less precise stages, broader temperature ranges, and so could lead to confusion.].
487 K 2.6/5 (154 reviews)
Grade this recipe:
Keywords:
Last modified on: April 3rd 2019
For 4 pieces, you will need:
  • 1 caster sugar 200 g caster sugar
  • 2 water 3 tablespoons water
  • 3 lemon juice 5 drops lemon juice
  • Total weight: 245 grams

Change these quantities to make:
Times for this recipe
Preparation: 5 min.
Cooking: 40 min.
All in all: 45 min.
When should you start or finish this recipe?
If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time
To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe


Stage 1 - 5 min.
Cooking sugar
You will also need a sugar thermometer ( up to 200°C or 392°F) or even better, an electronic thermometer.

Pour water, a few lemon juice (or vinegar) drops, and sugar into a pan.

The exact volume of water doesn't matter, because sugar starts to cook only when all the water is evaporated. So it's not necessary to use very much water.

Stage 2 - 10 min.
Cooking sugar
Put the pan on high heat with thermometer in, and bring to the boil.

You will notice that for quite a long time, the temperature will stay around 100°C or 212°F, that will be the case as long as there is still any water remaining with sugar.

Stage 3
Cooking sugar
For the following stages, you will probably see some impurities coming out of the sugar that will stick round the sides of the pan.

Stage 4
Cooking sugar
As they heat they will eventually burn and might add a bitter taste to the sugar. You can remove them with a brush dipped in clean cold water.

Stage 5 - 5 min.
Cooking sugar
Stage 1: 106°C or 223°F, sugar is cooked to "thread" stage (used for some jams for example).

Stage 6 - 3 min.
Cooking sugar
Stage 2: 110°C or 230°F, sugar is cooked to "pearl or soufflé" stage (used for other jams and blackcurrant liqueur for example).

Stage 7 - 3 min.
Cooking sugar
Stage 3: 118°C or 244°F, sugar is cooked to "soft ball" stage (used for Italian meringue for example).

Stage 8 - 3 min.
Cooking sugar
Stage 4: 125°C or 257°F, sugar is cooked to "hard ball" stage.

Stage 9 - 3 min.
Cooking sugar
Stage 5: 135°C or 275°F, sugar is cooked to "soft crack" stage (it sticks to your teeth).

Stage 10 - 3 min.
Cooking sugar
Stage 6: 140°C or 284°F, sugar is cooked to "crack" stage (no longer sticky and it snaps).

Stage 11 - 3 min.
Cooking sugar
Stage 7: 155°C or 311°F, sugar is cooked "hard crack" stage (it snaps like glass).

Stage 12 - 3 min.
Cooking sugar
Stage 8: 160°C or 320°F, sugar is now "light caramel" (straw-coloured).

Stage 13 - 2 min.
Cooking sugar
Stage 9 (and final): 180°C or 356°F, light caramel becomes "dark caramel" (it's coloured). You should cool it and use it immediately, because it will continue cooking a little further, even off the heat.

Be careful: beyond 190°C or 374°F, caramel starts to smoke, burns and is spoiled.
Remarks
Cooking sugar is a delicate operation due to the high temperature, working with caramel at 180°C or 356°F can be very very dangerous. This why this is one of the only recipes on the site that you should make without any children around you.

In former times (not so long ago) patissiers had no thermometer, so to know the temperature of the sugar they dipped two fingers in water then in the cooking sugar, and then by touching their fingers together then releasing, they could tell by the behaviour of the sugar what stage it was at: thread, soft ball, hard ball, etc. That's the origin of the strange names of the stages.

Lemon juice drops are there to prevent sugar from brutal not wanted crystallization. I thougt it was a legend, so I don't put in, until it really happen to me when I was preparing a red sugar :

crystalized sugar

Pretty, but not usable...

Source: Gaston Lenôtre.
Nutritional information
Proteins (gr)Carbohydrates (gr)Fats (gr)Energy value (in k-calories)Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe0200 RDI=20 %0800 RDI=40 %3,350 RDI: 40 %
Per 100 g080 RDI=8 %0330 RDI=20 %1,370 RDI: 20 %
Per piece050 RDI=5 %0200 RDI=10 %840 RDI: 10 %
The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman Change to a man
How much will it cost?
  • For 4 pieces : 0.20 €
  • Per piece : 0.05 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.
This recipe uses (among others)
Other recipes you may also like
Panettone
Panettone
Panettone is a brioche-style Italian loaf, made with dried fruit (raisins and candied peel) and flavoured with left-over citrus fruit. The recipe is a bit complicated but, above all, it takes time, a great deal of time...
April 15th 2020139 K5 1 day 1 hour 20 min.
Clementine confectioner's custard
Clementine confectioner's custard
This clementine confectioner's custard makes the most of the delicious fruity flavour by using both the juice and zest.
January 23th 202234 K 30 min.
Candied grapefruit peel
Candied grapefruit peel
Not really a dessert, more a kind of sweet. After soakiing, strips of grapefruit skin are cooked very slowly to conservethem in sugar. It's a real treat with coffee at the end of a meal.
December 20th 2018369 K 14 1 day 1 hour 25 min.
Clarified butter
Clarified butter
This is a way of melting butter to eliminate all the impurities. The clarified butter can then be heated without spoiling, and is more digestible. It is ideal for cooking at high temperatures where small black specks would spoil the appearance, or for emulsified sauces like béarnaise or mousseline.
June 21th 2017458 K4.2 2 hours 15 min.
How to cook hard-boiled eggs properly
How to cook hard-boiled eggs properly
A hard-boiled egg is properly cooked when: shell is not broken, white and yolk are firm, yolk is only yellow with no traces of green around it. Here are some tips to make this easy.
November 4th 20131.37 M 65 1 hour 30 min.
News list of cooking-ez.com

Sign up to receive the latest recipes (next batch due to be sent on 2024-12-29)

*Your e-mail Your first name or nickname
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Post a comment or question
Posted by:
I am not a leaving thing
Follow this recipe (as 9 people already do)
If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page