Candy Making Without a Thermometer (Cold Water Test) (2024)

FAQs

How do you test candy making cold water? ›

Drop a small amount of the candy mixture with a teaspoon into a small bowl of cold water. Each time you test the candy use a fresh bowl of cold water. If the candy forms a thin thread and does not "ball up", it is in the thread stage or 230°—235°F. This stage is similar to sugar syrup rather than candy.

For the Cold Water Test: 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the syrup (candy mixture) is dropped from a clean spoon into a small bowl of very cold water (not ice cold). Quickly examine and/or carefully pick up the sugar from the cold water. The firmness of the sugar indicates the highest temperature the syrup reached.

Using a clean spoon, carefully take a little of the syrup and drop it into the bowl of cold water. Leave to cool for a moment then pick up the ball of syrup. If it's pliable, sticky and can be moulded in your fingers easily, it has reached the soft ball stage and the syrup can be used to make fudge and marzipan.

You can always do the 'cold water test': drop a small amount of hot syrup in a glass of cold water. As it falls to the bottom of the glass, the syrup cools and forms into a ball. Remove the ball from the water and check its consistency with your fingers.

Even without a candy thermometer, you can still check if the fudge is cooked by doing a cold water test. Drop a piece of hot fudge into a glass filled with ice water. It should form a soft ball that can easily flatten between your fingers.

If you leave your elbow in the water or 5–10 seconds, you'll be able to form a rough idea of the water's temperature. If the water feels slightly warm, but not hot, it's around 100 °F (38 °C).

Touching a person's forehead with the back of the hand is a common method of telling whether or not they have a fever. If the person has a fever, their forehead may feel very hot. This can be inaccurate, but it may provide some general information.

There are several ways to determine temperature without a thermometer, but one common method is to use a temperature-sensitive material with a known melting or boiling point. For example, you can use ice, which melts at 0°C (32°F), or a substance like paraffin wax, which has a specific melting point.

about 40 minutes to reach soft ball stage. 60 minutes to cool. 28 minutes to beat in a KitchenAid (your time for this may vary) 4 hours to set.

Cold water is one of the most common methods for testing candy temperature without a thermometer. To use this method, place a small piece of the candy in cold water and wait a few minutes. If the candy hardens, it is ready to be used. If it does not harden, it is still being prepared.

What is the cold water test for candy making? ›

Drop a little of the molten syrup in cold water and it will form hard, brittle threads that break when bent. CAUTION: To avoid burns, allow the syrup to cool in the cold water for a few moments before touching it! Toffee, nut brittles, and lollipops are all cooked to the hard-crack stage.

When sugar is completely dissolved in a liquid, it is no longer visible and there is no grainy texture when the liquid is stirred or agitated. To determine this, look for any undissolved sugar granules in the liquid or taste the liquid for any grainy or gritty sensations.

Because molecules move faster when it's hot, the candy in hot water dissolves much faster. The candy in ice water might take all night to dissolve. With chocolate, the difference is even more impressive. Since the cocoa butter in chocolate doesn't dissolve in water, chocolate placed in cold water just sits there.

To make candy or jelly at home, it's essential to have a thermometer that can process particularly high temperatures. Though a meat thermometer might seem like a convenient substitute, it doesn't have the ability to read and process temperature to the same extent that a candy thermometer does.

Drop some of the peanuts into the cold water again. If they come out hard and look like brittle, then it's ready! Immediately take off the heat and stir in the baking soda mixture we made earlier.