The Perfect Christmas Candies: You can do it!
What is a holiday without treats? Whether on the table top, by your fireplace, or on your Christmas tree, candies are a delight fit for the holidays.
Candy making is an art, and a science. Not only requiring you to balance creativity with skill, you also need to incorporate knowledge so exquisite it’s almost hard to comprehend. Here’s where we step in. The trick to perfection is knowledge, so what do you need to know this holiday season to keep your sweets just as delightful as the occasion? Simple, you just need to know a little bit about the basics on how candy is made, starting with the basic ingredient, sugar. What’s so special about sugar? Sugar has special properties that make it the perfect choice for candy recipes. Now, what are these properties? Sugar crystals are solid at room temperature, but once you put these sugar crystals in water, they dissolve, this is the very first step to candy-making, this in effect, forms a clear solution. Heat is then applied and held at specific temperatures and then the solution is allowed to boil at very at these specific temperatures. In doing this we are inducing chemical changes or reactions to occur in the sugar; this is because heat will break the crystals apart into molecules, then at some point, the molecules will get back together forming sugar crystals again as the sugar syrup cools. The most crucial and important aspect of candy making, is banking on the knowledge that the syrup solution solidifies into crystals after heating.
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