You may have heard about sugar crystallization or experienced it for yourself. Have you ever had a jar of golden, syrupy honey turn into a solid, grainy mess? Have you ever made some simple syrup for your cake and discovered a few days later that it looked more like toothpaste than syrup? That’s crystallization.
You might be wondering what went wrong or if you need to adjust your recipe. Crystallization is a chain reaction where the melted sugar starts to re-form into its crystalline (grainy) state. It’s easy to start this chain reaction, even if you are using a great recipe and are being careful with your techniques. You might make a recipe dozens of times and find that sometimes crystallization occurs and sometimes it doesn’t.
Sugar crystallization has been plaguing candy makers for years. Sometimes crystallization will ruin your final product, but other times it’s not a problem, or it may even be part of the recipe. Fortunately, we do know what causes crystallization and how to prevent it, but it can be hard to adhere perfectly to these techniques. Still, there is a lot that can be done.