Science Sunday

Wet whichever sticks you’ve decided to use. I use one of the jars for this so that I can tell exactly where the sugar solution will stop. It’s good to keep in mind that you should just be covering the part of the stick that you want sugar crystals to form. Set your sticks in your jars. I used two clothes pins to hold it in place, some people use

Roll the wet sticks in sugar. This is called seed sugar, essentially it’s giving the sugar molecules in the sugar solution somewhere to congregate. If you skip this step, the sugar won’t as readily form around the stick (but it will most likely still form you’ll just be competing with the formation of sugar along the bottom of the glass).

Now it’s time for the sugar solution. This is a simple ratio of 3:1. At 3 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water I filled three 8 oz. jars. That means that I will be making 3 sticks of rock candy. If you want more sticks, you can double the number to 6 cups of sugar to 2 cups of water, or triple or whatever you’d like. Basically, the end result is that you are going to make a sugar syrup that has TOO MUCH sugar in it.  

Mix it all together and put it on a medium-high heat. You want to bring this to a boil, stirring constantly to make sure all the sugar gets incorporated. Then transfer it immediately off the heat. What’s important here is to notice that your solution will not become completely clear. You are forcing too much sugar to dissolve in the water, so while boiling it will still be quite cloudy.

Let stand for 20 minutes. During this time the solution will become much more clear (still not completely) and it will start to form a slight sugar crust on the top and sides.