Cooking With Sugar... its like cooking with fire only a lot sweeter!

In the next few weeks I'll be sharing a few really great recipes for things like buttercream frostings and meringues and all sorts of sugary treats! But before we can get to the fun part there is one really big housekeeping task that needs to be taken care of.

Cooking with sugar.

It seems simple as it is something that we do all time time - a cup of sugar here, a few tablespoons there - and we don't always give it much thought. Depending on what you are creating the only step you need to take it to measure and add it in.

However, there are those occasional recipes where you need your final product to have a bit more stability such as frosting on a cake that needs to sit out for a little while and not look droopy. One way to achieve this is by making a frosting that calls for sugar to be cooked to what is called the soft ball stage. You pretty much take water and sugar in a pot and cook it on the stove until it reaches a specific temperature range. The phrase soft ball refers to the fact that you will be able to roll a bit of the cooking sugar syrup into a small ball that will hold its form if left alone but will smush down if you pinch it with your fingers.  Technically you can use a candy thermometer and cook it until it reaches 235*-240* but I can never find my thermometer when I need it so I'll also share some fun tricks.

So here we go :)

Things you will need
A clean pot, preferable a stainless steel sauce pan (not a non-stick one!)
A lid (a cookie sheet works perfectly fine if you do not have a lid)
A candy thermometer (optional)
Clean hands (You should always be washing your hands if you are cooking, but for this recipe it is really, REALLY important for this technique)
A cup of ice water
A metal spoon

Ingredients
1 lb of sugar
1/2 cup of water (plus extra on the side, if needed)
1 ounce of Karo light corn syrup

Directions

• Make sure your hands, pot and sugar are all clean. For sugar, this means making sure there is nothing contaminating the sugar and take out and clumps.
• Put sugar in the pot
• Add the 1/2 cup of water
• With your hand stir all of the sugar and water making sure that there are no dry spots. You need to do this with your hand and not a spoon because it is easy to miss spots.
• Once mixed, rinse your hand and run along the inside of the pot making sure all the sugar is off the side. If you do not do this step, you can end up with burnt sugar. And trust me, its not fun... at all.
• Put your sugar on the stove, heat at medium high
• Place the lid on but leave vented (or balance a cookie sheet, also vented)

A peak into the sugar as it starts to come to a boil

• When your sugar starts to boil, add the Karo syrup (this step is optional, but it works as "insurance" to help make sure it comes out right)
• If you are using a candy thermometer, place in the pot now and continue until it reaches 235*-240* then remove from heat 
• If you are not using a thermometer let the sugar come back to a boil for a full minute
• Dip the spoon into the sugar and then place into the ice water - pull some of the sugar off of the spoon, roll in your fingers and see if it holds its shape. If not, allow the sugar to boil for another minute and try again. 
• Repeat until the sugar holds its shape but can be smushed with your fingers.
• Remove from heat

The final product!

You now have sugar that has been cooked to a soft ball stage! While you haven't created anything that you can eat at this point, knowing how to make this will come in handy in the near future :)