I am attempting to make sour, lemon-flavoured lollipops, but I can't get the mixture to the hard-crack stage without turning the mixture completely black. My candy thermometer says I'm reaching 310F, and I've verified this by trying mixtures to 300 and 290, each of which yield the expected softer (crack stage) products.

Using a mixture of 500ml sugar, 100ml dextrose, and 1/2 cup of water, I bring it to a boil. After the water evaporates, it rises steadily (actually, exponentially) to 310F. I add citric acid at the hard-ball stage, but do not add lemon extract (I suspect this makes the burning worse)

If I remove the syrup from the stove at 280F, I get the clear, glasslike look, but it is still soft and pliable. If I cook it to a higher temperature, it turns brown very quickly. By the time I have reached 310, it is very, very dark - almost black.


What am I doing wrong? Can I not cook this over the stove? Should I NOT add the citric acid until AFTER I have cooked the sugar? Could my thermometer be wrong? (but, again, the candy only gets hard if I cook it up to 310F. At 300 or 290, it's still soft at room temp)

BTW, I have also tried corn syrup, but it imparted too much golden color to the candy. Dextrose (long glucose chains) imparts no color to the candy, giving a clearer product.

HELP!!!


Torin...

Are you sure your candy thermometer is correct?

You may be heating it too fast.  Try using medium or lower, just enough to get an even slow boil.

Cool!  What was your solution?

I think all of answers has been here, so you just try to follow the answers

You may be heating it too fast.  Try using medium or lower, just enough to get an even slow boil.