How Can We Make Belgian Candy

[Golani51]

Belgian Candy is blooming expensive. How can we do it ourselves cheaper?
What is so special about it?

 

[matho]

Disolve 500g in 2 cups of water add a touch of citric acid to invert it and then boil the crap out of it.
Check it with a candy thermometer, boil it until it reaches soft crack, then take it off the heat and add water back.
Repeat the process until you reach the colour you want ( can take up to 2 hours), then add some more water and boil until it reaches about 110 deg c and then stop the boil. The last step is to ensure you end up with syrup not toffe

Simple aye

Cheers matho

 

[amiddler]

So what's the difference between Invert Sugar and Clear Candy Syrup?

 

[petesbrew]

Google is your friend. (LTFG).
Can't find the link for the recipe I used, but here's one that looks pretty well documented.
You can get a candy sugar thermometer from cooking shops pretty cheap.

Overall it's pretty easy.
http://joshthebrewmaster.wordpress.com/201...an-candi-sugar/

 

[fraser_john]

Google is your friend. (LTFG).
Can't find the link for the recipe I used, but here's one that looks pretty well documented.
You can get a candy sugar thermometer from cooking shops pretty cheap.

Overall it's pretty easy.
http://joshthebrewmaster.wordpress.com/201...an-candi-sugar/

Really nice link there petesbrew. I have bookmarked it for future reference.

I have made my own in the past, but did not know that you had to boil it and keep adding water to allow the acid to invert the sugars, so in reality, I probably never made it properly.

 

[joshthebrewmaster]

Hopefully the directions are clear and easy enough for y'all to follow. If you have any questions about the process feel free to contact me here or on the blog and I'll try my best to address them post-haste.

BTW, thanks for the link. Was wondering where the spike in traffic came from.

 

[spaced]

Hopefully the directions are clear and easy enough for y'all to follow. If you have any questions about the process feel free to contact me here or on the blog and I'll try my best to address them post-haste.

BTW, thanks for the link. Was wondering where the spike in traffic came from.

Haha, that's a crack of a post man. I came accross it a while ago.

Did you find it difficult? Very hard to do.

I bought a candy themometer but I don't completely trust it's temp readings.

 

[HoppingMad]

What is so special about it?

Belgian Candi imparts some nice flavours - particularly the dark stuff. It can add some caramel flavour and some say raisins.

If you do a bit of digging you'll find that breweries like Moortgat no longer actually use Candi - they actually use dextrose instead.
At that brewery it was phased out in the early 80s due to the cost factor I gather.

Hopper.

 

[joshthebrewmaster]

Haha, that's a crack of a post man. I came accross it a while ago.

Did you find it difficult? Very hard to do.

I bought a candy themometer but I don't completely trust it's temp readings.

Thanks. In reality it wasn't hard at all, just a bit time consuming. Next time I make it I'll probably just make 5 pounds and store what I don't need for later use.

I'd suggest getting an electronic thermometer like the one I linked. Not only does it take good readings but it makes cooking turkeys, steaks, and tuna a dead simple operation.

 

[Golani51]

Hopefully the directions are clear and easy enough for y'all to follow. If you have any questions about the process feel free to contact me here or on the blog and I'll try my best to address them post-haste.

BTW, thanks for the link. Was wondering where the spike in traffic came from.

Excellent articles. Where were you a few weeks ago when I coughed up $20 for a jar of the clear stuff??

For $20 I'll have enough to last me a decade.

Thanks champ.

 

[petesbrew]

Thanks. In reality it wasn't hard at all, just a bit time consuming. Next time I make it I'll probably just make 5 pounds and store what I don't need for later use.

I'd suggest getting an electronic thermometer like the one I linked. Not only does it take good readings but it makes cooking turkeys, steaks, and tuna a dead simple operation.

I've still got 700g clear from a big batch I made last year. Finally have it planned for a Belgian Blonde.
As stated, pretty easy, just takes a while.
I pour mine onto baking paper. A workmate did some on foil and it ripped, taking him ages to pull the little bits of foil off.
Actually the last batch I poured into takeaway containers.

 

[Fourstar]

i make a dry caramel for my Kentucky Common style beer and it fits the bill. As for bothering with inverting the sugar and whether or not it makes a difference, well thats debatable.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/01/how-to-make-the/ - Awesome in a ice cream as noted in this link too.

Dry Caramels are easier to screw up but the darkening process happens in a couple of minutes instead of 15-20 depending on how much water you start with. Essentially you're just waiting for the water to evaporate so your caramel can reach the required temperature to begin darkening. if you can do it in a stainless pan and not a non-stick so you can see the colour change it makes a real difference in determining when to pull it off.

I like to take it to copper in colour and pour it directly onto some baking paper to cool. At this level it gives the mildly burnt sugar bitter caramel that suits the style above. it would also be great for dubbels and other dark Belgians.

 

[manticle]

I do mine similarly Fourstar. Melt the dry sugar, stirring all the time, then add water being careful it doesn't spit at me.

 

[Dave70]

That's about 1.5kg of sugar boiled up in a pot and poured into a nonstick baking tray, all sourced from ALDI.
Doesn't get much cheaper than that.

Ain't it purdy..

 

[pimpsqueak]

I spent about 3hrs last night making 1kg of gloriously dark candi sugar with this method.

A few things I have learned...
1: If you're going to make some really dark candi sugar, don't piss about with 1kg. You may as well make 4 or 5 kg at once if you have the room. 3hrs for 1kg of dark candi? No bloody wonder it's so expensive.

2: Don't be a cheap ******* and pour the mix out onto a tray lined with baking paper (as advised on http://joshthebrewmaster.wordpress.com/201...an-candi-sugar/). Contrary to his claim of making it "peel from the back of the solidified block a bit more easily" it actually transpires that this becomes the most accurate example of the phrase "Stuck like shit to a blanket" since the infamous Tainted Curry incident of '98.
Just buy a silicone baking tray or some other sort of non-stick tray.

I suppose since I have to dissolve it in water to add to the ferment, I can just scoop out the paper then. It's just ugly is all.

 

[Nick JD]

And a handi hint ... adding other less-refined sugaz to your ingredients list is the key to a truely flavour-imparting candi.

 

[stl]

1: If you're going to make some really dark candi sugar, don't piss about with 1kg. You may as well make 4 or 5 kg at once if you have the room. 3hrs for 1kg of dark candi? No bloody wonder it's so expensive.

Should be easier to hold a larger volume at a steady temperature, too...

2: Don't be a cheap ******* and pour the mix out onto a tray lined with baking paper (as advised on http://joshthebrewmaster.wordpress.com/201...an-candi-sugar/). Contrary to his claim of making it "peel from the back of the solidified block a bit more easily" it actually transpires that this becomes the most accurate example of the phrase "Stuck like shit to a blanket" since the infamous Tainted Curry incident of '98.

I've never had a problem with that. Did it really not solidify properly at all? Did you bring the temperature up beyond "hard crack" at the end?

 

[black_labb]

I just made some dark candy sugar last night. I used 2.5kg of white sugar, citric acid and some DAP (yeast nutrient). I read somewhere that DAP is added for nitrogen which reduces the temperature for the maillard reaction to start. This should mean you have more leniency in terms of darkening it without risking getting too close to burning it.

I started with nearly no water until the sugar was partially melted then I added boiled water. in the past I've added too much water at the start and it took ages to boil it off.

I did half quite dark, and half between amber and dark

 

[Malted]

And a handi hint ... adding other less-refined sugaz to your ingredients list is the key to a truely flavour-imparting candi.

So if I was adding dark brown sugar, demerara or raw sugar etc at what quantitiy would it be ok relative to your refined sugar?

 

[pimpsqueak]

Should be easier to hold a larger volume at a steady temperature, too...



I've never had a problem with that. Did it really not solidify properly at all? Did you bring the temperature up beyond "hard crack" at the end?

Sorry, didn't mean to infer that it had the consistency of diarrhoea, just that it is stuck fast to the baking paper. It is hard a a rock.
I'm just going to dissolve it in water tonight and strain out the paper, then boil off the water and let it set in a non stick pan.