Notes
Sucrose, or table sugar, and other sugars are the main ingredients in candy. Sucrose is made of two simple sugars, glucose and fructose, that are bound together. Sugar crystals are solid at room temperature. When sugar crystals are dissolved in water, the sugar goes into solution. At a particular temperature, water can dissolve only a certain amount of a particular sugar. The solution reaches the point where no more sugar can be dissolved, and extra sugar will just sink to the bottom. This point is called the saturation point.
Heating the sugar/water solution increases the amount of sugar that can be dissolved. The heat caus- es the crystals to break into smaller molecules. The sugar molecules move faster and farther apart, enabling the solution to dissolve more and more sugar molecules. The solution turns into a clear sugar syrup. As you add more sugar, the solution becomes super-
saturated. This means that the solution has reached a delicate balance of just enough sugar molecules and enough heat to keep the sugar molecules dissolved, but in an unstable state. The sugar molecules begin to crystallize back into a solid at the least disruption of heat or action. In other words, the sugar comes back together as sugar crystals when the syrup cools.
To make candy, you boil a mixture of sugar and water to create sugar syrup. The water evaporates, and the sugar concentrates. The higher the tempera- ture, the more concentrated the sugar becomes. The texture of a candy (hard, soft, or chewy) depends on its cooking temperature and ingredients.