Candy making failures
So it all started when I got a little bag of citric acid. I wasn't familir with what citric acid was; it looked like white sugar, and I assumed it was similar to lemon-flavoured sugar, and dropped a few spoons in a cake dough. It was not the right thing to do; the cake was nearly inedible. With my intense love of sour acidic food, I still ate it, with a lot of jam on top.
Afterwards I became obsessed with the citric acid. It was like a forbidden food; if I tried to eat it with a spoon it hurt my mouth, but the sour taste is irresistible. I realized because this had strong lemon flavouring, I could make lemon-flavoured sour candy with it.
I looked at many candy recipes on youtube; I noticed the most of them had the aid of a food thermometer but assumed I was just going to make the perfect candy without one because I'm just so whimsical and fun. The recipe for hard candy seems simple: boil some sugar with a spoon of vinegar and some water, when it boils to a certain temperature add flavour and coloring, then spill the mixture on parchment paper or silicone and wrangle it while it's hot into a twisted noodle you can cut into candy pieces with scissors. I would later realize that if I'm very quick, I can roll the candy pieces into little balls to make them look nice!
So I was off. I put in sugar, citric acid because it looked the same as sugar, vinegar and water into a pot, and the end result was so disgusting it was inedible. It tasted liked burned and charred sugar. Maybe there is something about a food thermometer, I thought, but immediately tried a second batch, which I lingered over attentively so it wouldn't catch a dark color. I pulled it off fire early and – it wouldn't set and make candy. It made a honey-like gel. Next few batches went exactly the same, either a burned mess or a honey-like liquid, that I still used to make lemony drinks.
After 4 failures I decided to look it up, and learned some valuable info: it's the citric acid that burns! You are supposed to be able to boil sugar until it goes dark caramel in color, without burning it, but citric acid will burn as soon as it's boiling temperature. I was supposed to add it after the boiling was over. I also realized that one of my mistakes was using a black pot, which didn't let me see the color of sugar at all, and without a thermometer, it was the only way to monitor the temperature.
So I picked out a nice metal pot, with a thick bottom, and this is the first time I actually took pictures. Look how pretty this processs is!
These also tasted like disgusting burnt mess. I put the citric acid in after turning the fire off, but because my pot had a thick bottom, it was still a very high temperature, and it burned instantly.
I was at this point, so sure that the next batch will be perfect, because what else could I possibly mess up. I had experience messing up in every single stage, I was an experienced loser, and I knew what to do – be very very careful not to burn it, but to get it to correct temperature so it still sets into hard candy. My next try was done so carefully. Get the pot off the fire before it boils, to make sure all sugar has melted perfectly before boiling so it doesn't crystalize. Watch the pot attentively without stirring. When the color starts to turn gold, turn the fire off. Wait until it stops boiling completely. Only then add citric acid and stir with the thinnest little stick (I used a chopstick) so the sugar doesn't crystalize.
I did everything right per say, but was so scared I'll burn it, I didn't put any vinegar in, and I only added a tiny bit of citric acid in, and the end result was... edible but not super tasty. It was the taste of melted sugar that someone rolled into a ball. Not super enticing to eat, but at least I could eat it. I technically had... candy.
(the honey gel failure and sugar tasting candy)
I waited a day before putting my foot down. I could make better candy. Now I had the final two pieces of info: a spoon of vinegar is absolutely necessary for the flavour, and you need a full teaspoon of citric acid to make the flavour good. I repeated the process above, this time adding things in the right quanitity. And:
These taste perfect! This is exactly what I wanted! I am absolutely thrilled. They are sour and lemony and delicious. I can't even taste the sugar. This was my 7th batch. I needed 7 tries to get it!! I would have been mortified about all the sugar I wasted, but it was all worth it. I can now make candy for life. The reason why this was so hard was just that I insisted on using citric acid as flavouring, if I had used a fruit extract I would have made it on my first or second try. If I got my hand on some extract, I could now make all kinds of flavoured candy, gift it to people, I could make lollipops!
I learned they tend to melt if left as is, so I rolled my good batch into some powdered sugar and wrapped them into paper I cut out from a paper bag. I feel so accomplished, I don't have to buy candy anymore, and I can have as much as I like.