It may be hard to understand how to make hard candy in high humidity, and soft candy is just as challenging. Most recipes are already temperamental, so if the weather isn't ideal, perfecting a sugary candy recipe is even trickier. But you don't necessarily have to wait for the cold, dry days of winter to make a batch of your favorite candy.
With some knowledge about how humidity and the weather affect candy making, plus a few tips for combatting the effects, you can make your own candy in almost any climate. If you're preparing a candy in summer or live somewhere warm all year round, use this advice to help your next batch of candy turn out just the way you like it.
How Does Weather Affect Candy Making?
Candy recipes usually call for precision, such as heating sugar to a specific temperature and cooling it quickly. When the weather is hot or humid, it may take longer for the candy to cool, or it can absorb excess moisture from the air, which might cause the sugar to crystallize or the texture to soften instead of becoming hard and crisp.
That's part of why candy making is so prevalent in winter; the best climate for making candy has a relative humidity of less than 35%, and cold air usually has less moisture than hot air. But if you live in an area that's hardly ever that dry (or if you're craving a batch of peanut brittle when the weather is warm), you can always use your air conditioner or a portable dehumidifier for about a day or so before making candy.
How to Make Hard Candy in High Humidity
If the weather conditions are less than ideal, you can still make a great candy recipe with a few tweaks. Because excessive softness in candy results from high relative humidity, cook hard candies, such as nut brittle, to 2 degrees higher than the temperature your recipe calls for. The additional 2 degrees in cooking temperature will compensate for moisture in the air, so your candy will still have the correct texture.
Accuracy is also essential for candy, especially if you're adjusting a recipe for the weather. Always be sure to use a candy thermometer for precise readings, and check the thermometer you're using (even if it's brand new) to make sure it's giving the correct reading.
To double-check, before you start making candy, clip the thermometer to a pot of water, ensuring the tip isn't touching the bottom of the pan. Then, heat the water to a rolling boil on the stove. Check the temperature on the thermometer once the water is boiling; it should match the boiling point of water in your region (at sea level, water boils at 212°F, but the boiling point decreases as the altitude increases).
If the thermometer gives the correct temperature for boiling water, you know it will provide accurate measurements as you're heating sugar and water. If the thermometer is wrong (say it's off by 5°F), you'll know to add or subtract that amount from the reading to get the right temperature.
Triple-Chocolate Truffles
How to Temper Chocolate in Hot Weather
If you're tempering chocolate for a candy recipe (slowly melting and then cooling chocolate to give it a glossy finish), humidity also affects that process. Just like any other candy, you'll have the best results if you do it on a cool, dry day. However, if you're tempering chocolate on a warm or humid day, cooling the chocolate to the right temperature is the most likely spot for trouble.
Hot weather might make chocolate cool too slowly; however, you can help gently cool it by dipping the bottom of the bowl into room temperature water (don't let any water touch the chocolate itself). This will allow the chocolate to slowly cool to the correct temperature without letting it get too cold. Don't use cold water or place the bowl in the fridge; this could cool it down too quickly, causing the chocolate to crack or lose its shininess. Once properly tempered, the chocolate will look even more appetizing.
Storing Candy
Whether the weather is humid or not, how you store your candy will also affect the texture and how long it lasts. Keep different types of candy in separate, airtight containers in a cool, dry place like your pantry or the refrigerator. This is especially important if you live in a humid climate since the finished candy could absorb moisture from the air, which will cause it to go soft sooner.
Because excessive softness in candy results from high relative humidity, cook hard candies, such as nut brittle
brittle
Brittle is a type of confection consisting of flat broken pieces of hard sugar candy embedded with nuts such as pecans, almonds, or peanuts, and which are usually less than 1 cm thick.
, to 2 degrees higher than the temperature your recipe calls for. The additional 2 degrees in cooking temperature will compensate for moisture in the air, so your candy will still have the correct texture.
Because excessive softness in candy is the result of high relative humidity, you can also cook hard candies, such as peanut brittle, to 2 degrees higher than the temperature your recipe calls for.
You may also feel a stickiness on hardened sugar you are using for making candy. Cooking candy sugar to the proper temperature requires achieving the appropriate sugar-moisture balance. High humidity hastens the breakdown of sugar as it cools.
Stir white sugar, corn syrup, and water together in a medium saucepan. Cook, stirring, over medium heat until sugar dissolves, then bring to a boil. Without stirring, heat to 300 to 310 degrees F (149 to 154 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms hard, brittle threads.
In hard candy making, it is important to cook all the water out of the sugar/corn syrup/water mixture. If the sugar mixture is not cooked to the proper temperature (the hard-crack stage 300-310° F {149-154° C.} or if you are working in a kitchen with high humidity, chances are your candy is retaining too much moisture.
Check out the weather forecast before making hard candy. Did you know that humidity can affect the outcome of your candy? Sugar attracts water, so rainy and humid days can hamper your attempts at making hard candy. It's best to wait for a clear and dry day.
Cotton candy will melt when fully exposed to open air and should not be left out more than ten to twenty minutes. Humidity in the air will begin to melt cotton candy immediately, the higher the humidity, the faster this process will start.
Next is soft-crack stage, this happens between 270-290oF, sugar concentration is 95%, and forms solid, flexible threads. Hard-crack stage occurs between 300-310oF, sugar concentration is around 99%, and makes hard, brittle threads when dropped in water.
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!
Continue boiling, uncovered, not stirring the mixture but shaking the saucepan occasionally to distribute the heat as the mixture turns amber in about 9 minutes, then darker amber as it registers 305 degrees on the thermometer (hard-crack stage ), about 3 minutes longer.
Because excessive softness in candy results from high relative humidity, cook hard candies, such as nut brittle, to 2 degrees higher than the temperature your recipe calls for. The additional 2 degrees in cooking temperature will compensate for moisture in the air, so your candy will still have the correct texture.
Cream of tartar can prevent your homemade hard candy, caramel, and toffee from forming a gritty texture due to sugar crystallization. Adding a pinch of cream of tartar to your sugar syrup will help break down the sugar molecules and stop them from crystalizing early on.
Leave the door open to the room with your laundry so the moisture has somewhere to escape. Avoid opening the windows in your room since you could let in the outside humidity and make it more difficult to dry your clothes.
When making Fudge on a damp, humid day it will need to boil to a higher temperature in the pan and when it's left to cool and set it will be a little softer. That doesn't mean you can't make Fudge on a damp, humid day! You can make Fudge all year round.
Rule of Thumb: For each 1,000 feet above sea level, reduce the temperatures in the recipe by 2°F. This adjustment allows the candy maker to control the degree of evaporation necessary to achieve the proper sugar concentration for the desired end product.
Controlling excessive humidity is critical to avoiding quality issues like chocolate blooming. Chocolate blooms, specifically sugar bloom happens when humidity starts to dissolve sugar crystals on the surface of the chocolate and leaves behind a white powdery-looking film.
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