The 6 Stages Of Sugar-Cooking When Making Candy, Explained

Candy making is essentially an art, combining creativity, technical skill, and some science. In fact, when it comes to making your favorite sugar candies, it often boils down to temperature — quite literally. This type of candy starts with just two ingredients — sugar and water — which form sugar syrup when combined. Once you heat that syrup in a pan, the magic begins.

Depending on how hot you want to take it, you can create anything from silky caramel to a Wonka-esque lollipop when sugar-cooking. Through a fascinating series of chemical reactions, sugar dissolves, water evaporates, and crystals begin to form. You can manipulate the finished product by stirring, kneading, rolling the candy, or adding ingredients, but the key to perfect candy lies in mastering the temperature.

A candy making technique that dates back centuries, sugar-cooking essentially comes down to two ingredients and perfect timing. If you're curious about the entire process, we've detailed the six different stages of sugar-cooking, and how each works to make your favorite candies.

The first stage of sugar cooking is the thread stage. Here, the sugar syrup is heated to between 230 and 235 degrees Fahrenheit. The sugar concentration is about 80%, and the water is starting to evaporate.

Now, it's important to use a cooking thermometer to ensure you remove the syrup from the pan as soon as it reaches the correct temperature. After all, it's easy to overcook the mixture as it heats and move to the next stage (soft-ball). Given this, it's a good idea to recalibrate your candy thermometer beforehand by testing it to ensure accuracy. You can do this by placing it in boiling water –– it should read exactly 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

Since the mixture hasn't been heated for too long, there's still a lot of water left here, as well, meaning it'll be thick but still runny. The syrup should form thin threads when you lift it from the pan, and retain those thin, soft threads when using the cold water test. The mixture will be pliable, not sticky or hard, which is why sugar candy in the thread stage is used to create glazes, preserves, coat candied fruits, drizzle over ice cream, or make a delicious homemade vanilla syrup.

When your sugar syrup reaches a temperature between 235 and 240 degrees Fahrenheit, it's at the soft-ball stage. The mixture now has about 85% sugar concentration, and marks the transition from a liquid syrup to a pliable solid.

As with the thread stage, you'll want to use a candy thermometer to ensure you remove the mixture from the heat at exactly 240 degrees Fahrenheit. If the syrup is undercooked, it won't set; but if it's overcooked, it'll be too hard for the candy you're trying to make. If you end up overshooting your goal and head into the next stage, you can try adding a very small amount of water to bring down the boiling point and reverse the process. You can also test the mixture by placing a droplet in cold water. At the soft ball stage, the mixture should form a soft, flexible ball in the cold water, and when you lift it out and place it in your palm, it should flatten easily.

The soft-ball stage is used to create a wide range of your favorite sweets. Fudge, fondants, and pralines are made at the soft ball stage, although many of these are created by adding ingredients. For example, you would add sugar, cream, and butter to create one of these nine decadent fudge recipes, and blend nuts with the sugar syrup mixture to make praline.

The firm-ball stage is reached during sugar-cooking when the mixture ranges between 245 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit. At this point, a significant amount of water has evaporated, leading your sugar syrup to become more dense (with a sugar concentration of around 87%).

The mixture may start to bubble slightly as the sugar cooks and caramelizes. As before, you can test the mixture using the cold water test. The liquid should form a solid that can hold its shape both within the water and when removed and placed in your hand. However, the ball should still be able to be molded and not set hard.

Firm-ball candy is used to make slightly harder candies that can be bitten into, or are slightly chewy (like caramel and gumdrops). And not unlike other stages of candy making, the sugar syrup solution is just one part of making candies. When making gumdrops, you use gelatin to set them and flavorings and colorings to create their classic look and taste, whilst with caramels, you add cream, corn syrup, and vanilla extract.

At the hard-ball stage, your mixture is seriously heating up. The syrup will be bubbling viciously, and may start to turn a slight yellow color. After you test your candy thermometer, use it to ensure the temperature is between 250 and 265 degrees Fahrenheit — and you're good to go.

If you pull your spoon out of the mixture at the hard-ball stage, you should be able to see semi-firm, stringy threads. Using the cold water test, hard ball candy should form a hard ball when dropped into water. The ball should be almost but not quite set, with a small amount of movement. At this stage, you can make nougat, toffee, marshmallows, gummies and rock candy. To make nougat and meringue, the sugar syrup is added to an egg white mixture. For marshmallows, you add gelatin, while rock candy is shaped by adding glucose, which keeps it soft enough to roll and form its shape and pattern.

Furthermore, did you know you must modify your temperature if you live at altitude? The air at higher altitudes is thinner, after all, meaning the boiling point of water is lower. For example, at an altitude of 2000 feet, the boiling point is 208 degrees Fahrenheit (rather than 212 degrees Fahrenheit). As a result, you'll need to subtract 2 degrees Fahrenheit for every 1000 feet above sea level when sugar-cooking — to the hard-ball stage or otherwise.

By the time you've reached the soft-crack stage, very little water is left, with a sugar concentration of around 96%. Your liquid should start to turn into a gorgeous golden yellow by this point, and the bubbles become smaller, thicker, and more concentrated.

The soft-crack stage is reached between 270 and 290 degrees Fahrenheit. When dropped into cold water, the syrup will make a cracking noise before solidifying into threads. Unlike the next stage (hard-crack), when you pick these threads up, they'll bend slightly before breaking. You can make butterscotch in this stage, which is very similar to toffee. But while toffee is aerated after cooling by pulling and folding, toffee can be described as overcooked butterscotch. It's made of the same ingredients but cooked to the hard-crack stage.

At the soft-crack stage, candies that are thicker than caramel (but softer than toffee) can be made. On that note, butterscotch and caramel can both appear in a softer, more liquid forms, but also in harder candy versions. The main difference between butterscotch and caramel is that butterscotch uses brown sugar, whereas caramel uses white.

At the hard crack stage, your sugar syrup is between 300 and 310 degrees Fahrenheit. There's now almost no water left in the pan at all, and the mixture is thick, viscous, and a dark golden brown. Dropping the liquid into cold water will result in a loud crack as the mixture hardens into ribbons that crack immediately with no pliability at all.

At the hard crack stage, you can make lollipops. It's as simple as removing the pan from the stove, letting it cool, adding flavor extracts (and coloring), and pouring it into a mold. Hard crack candies include brittle, honeycomb, and toffee. Classic peanut brittle is mixed with peanuts, spread onto a sheet, and allowed to cool, where it forms a hard brittle that will snap and crack. Honeycomb has baking soda added to it, which puffs up when it comes into contact with the syrup, aerating it and giving it its unusual appearance. Toffee, on the other hand, is cooked just a touch longer, and butter or cream is added.

If you aren't careful, you can go past the hard crack stage. After all, at this point, the water has entirely evaporated, and it's 100% sugar. It's very easy to burn the mixture at this stage, so make sure you remove it from the heat.