Is Making Rock Candy A Chemical Change

Did y'all know that candy-making is really just a tasty form of chemistry? Next fourth dimension you bite into your favorite sweetness care for, consider the time and scientific experimentation that went into creating a shelf-stable, packaged candy that non only stays fresh but tastes AMAZING.

Acquire more about the science backside your favorite Halloween treats, and find out how to create candy experiments of your own at abode!

In full general, candy is made past dissolving carbohydrate into h2o to create a solution. Granulated sugar, the most mutual type used in candy-making, is sucrose, a disaccharide molecule made upwardly of glucose and fructose. When you force these two molecules to break apart, a very tasty reaction occurs: caramelization. The way that we force this reaction to occur is past adding oestrus into the mix when we try and dissolve carbohydrate into water. Heating up the solution forces the sucrose molecules to break up and caramelize.

But when we do that, the sugar molecules really want to crystallize back into their solid form. Candy-makers utilise that crystallization process, and some strategic interference, to create the candies that nosotros know and dear.

The two basic categories of candy fabricated this way:

Crystalline candies like stone candy and fudge.
Non-crystalline candies like caramels and marshmallows.

The key to mastering candy-making and creating amazing sweet treats is figuring out the concentration of sugar in your solution and the temperature that you need to heat it to. Lower concentrations of sugar are used with lower temperatures, since the more you lot heat your water the more sugar you tin can force to dissolved. Temperatures range anywhere from 223 degrees Fahrenheit to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Any higher and your sugar will burn (and taste bitter).

Itching to make your ain candy at home? The virtually fun recipe to brand is probably stone processed! Not but will you lot get to experiment with candy-making science, you'll get to watch the germination of sugar crystals.

Homemade Rock Candy Experiment

Ingredients

2 cups water
6 cups granulated sugar
Optional: 1/2 to 1 teaspoon flavoring extract or oil – experience free to become creative!
Optional: food coloring – to give your candy a fun color

Equipment

iv 12-ounce jars or one quart-sized jar
Cotton thread & pencils or 4 wooden skewers
Candy thermometer

The Experiment

Clean your jars with hot h2o.
For each jar, cut a slice of string that's a few inches longer that the tiptop of your jar and tape information technology to a pencil. Position the pencil over the rima oris of the jar and wind information technology until the finish of the string is hanging about an inch from the bottom. If you lot're using skewers, use a clothespin to hang it in the jar.
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil over medium high heat, then add one cup of sugar. Stir until information technology dissolves completely. Repeat this step with all six cups of sugar to create a supersaturated liquid. If your sugar is not dissolving, raise the rut.
Estrus the saccharide solution until it reaches 230 degrees Fahrenheit on your candy thermometer. This is called the "soft brawl" phase in candy-making.
Remove the solution from heat and add flavorings (no more than 1 teaspoon).
Carefully wet the strings or skewers in your syrup and roll them in granulated sugar. This will be the base of the sugar crystals.
Optional: Add 6-vii drops of food coloring to your jars.
Pour the sugar solution into your jars, leaving some room at the top.
Position your strings or skewers in the clean jars equally outlined in step 2.
Allow your jars sit undisturbed for iii-five days. Watch your jars equally candy crystals grade! Make sure you don't jiggle your jars besides much. For larger processed crystals, put your jars in a night warm room (or the back of the pantry).
Finally! It'due south time to enjoy some tasty candy!