food science

Homemade rock candy is easy to make! It simply requires a little bit of patience and a whole lot of sugar. Whether you&#039;re making the sweet treat to enjoy for dessert or as a science experiment to do with your kids, you&#039;ll be amazed at how fun DIY rock candy is.

DIY Rock Candy

wooden skewers

mason jars ((I recommend 16 oz))

clothespins

water

granulated sugar, (plus more for coating skewers)

Food coloring

Submerge skewers in water, coat them in sugar, and then set out to dry. I like to do this a day ahead of time, but as long as you let them dry for an hour, they should be fine.

Make sure your jars are clean and not cold (run hot water through them if necessary). Attach a clothespin or chip clip to the top of each skewer and then balance over the top of jars. Be sure your skewer is hanging about an inch from the bottom of the jar as the rock candy crystals will stick to the bottom of the jar and will make it tough to remove skewers.

In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add sugar in one cup at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon and letting each cup fully dissolve before adding the next. You&#039;ll notice it becomes harder and harder for the sugar to dissolve as you add more in.

Once your final cup of sugar has been dissolved, let mixture simmer for about 5 minutes before removing from heat. Let mixture rest off the heat for about 15 minutes.

Divide sugar solution amongst the 5 prepared jars. Stir in food coloring at this time. I recommend bringing your jars to where they&#039;ll be resting for the next 6-7 days at this time. Be sure to use caution as the jars will be very hot. Once they&#039;re in their resting spots, place prepared skewers into solution. You&#039;ll want to try your best not to move jars around much once skewers are in place.

You&#039;ll likely see little crystals forming within hours, but you&#039;ll want to let the jars rest for 6-7 days to let sugar crystals fully form.

When ready to remove rock candy sticks from jars, use your finger or a fork to gently crack the hardened sugar on top of the jar and gently wiggle the stick to release. Let solution drizzle from stick (I recommend setting the candy over an empty jar or bowl to let it drip) before enjoying the candy.

The science of perfect pancakes: leavening chemistry, acid-base stoichiometry, whey protein structure, and an interactive calculator that computes optimal ratios from your available ingredients.

The Absurdly Optimized Pancake: Leavening Chemistry, Acid-Base Stoichiometry, and an Interactive Calculator

All-purpose flour

0.49 g Instant yeast

Sugar

7.29 g Nonfat dry milk powder

0.81 g to 2.43 g Fine salt (to taste)

200 g Whole-milk ricotta

Sour cream

Kefir

lemon Lemon zest

36.9 g Butter

Maple syrup

Eggs (large)

0.13 g Cream of tartar

4.2 g Vanilla extract

12.9 g Baking powder(aluminum-free)

Berkshire pork fat (fatback) in chunks,or ghee or clarified butter

blueberries (optional)

Beat the sponge ingredients together until smooth, ideally with an electric beater to break up the ricotta and any sour cream.

Pour wet into dry. Fold 10–12 strokes until just combined. Lumps are desirable. Cover and leave at cool room temperature (~20°C / 68°F, confirmed with a Bluetooth thermometer) for about 10 hours (overnight), and no longer than 12, or it over-ferments and turns too sour. The baking powder goes in tomorrow.

In the morning, melt the butter in a small pan or microwave, and start preheating your pan: cast iron is best (8–10 min over medium-low), with an electric griddle (set to the target temperature) or carbon steel (5–7 min over medium-low) the next best.

Place serving plates and the maple syrup in the oven at 90°C / 200°F to warm. If you cannot eat them the moment they leave the pan, set a wire rack over a rimmed sheet pan in the same oven and hold the finished pancakes on it in a single layer, never stacked or touching.

Separate the eggs (reserve the yolks). With a clean, dry electric beater, whip the whites with cream of tartar, starting slow and raising the speed as the foam builds, to medium-firm peaks.

Whisk the melted butter, the yolks and the vanilla into the sponge by hand, gently, just until combined. Leave it lumpy.

Once the cast iron is at 150°C / 302°F: sift the baking powder over the batter and fold in gently (3–4 strokes).

Fold in the whipped whites with a silicone spatula: stir ¼ in to lighten, then gently fold in the rest. Cook immediately, on as many pans at once as you have.

Add the fat to the hot pan; when the fat has melted and shimmers, pour 13 cm rounds, about 105 mL each; they puff to roughly 1.4 cm as they cook. If using blueberries, scatter them on the moment the batter is poured, spaced about 3.4 cm apart, never clustered (about 12 on a 13 cm round).

Cook 3½–4 min on the first side, covered until the top looks set and is no longer wet (the trapped steam is what cooks a thick fluffy interior through, from above, faster than the pan can from below), then uncovered for the last minute or so to dry and crisp the surface, until the edges are set, the bubbles have popped, and the surface looks dry at the edges. Flip once, with a thin, ideally slotted steel turner. Cook 2 more min, uncovered, for the crust. Doneness is the center, not the clock: if the surface is browning but the middle is still wet, the heat is too high or the pour too thick. Forgiveness window at this temperature: about 84 seconds from golden to over-browned.

Serve immediately on the warmed plates with the warmed maple syrup. Do not stack.

Oh My! I just made Smitten Kitchen’s amazing fluffy BB pancakes yesterday.  I am happy I had not read this Doctor’s thesis about the science of making pancakes:) I am a retired chemist/formulator. It would have been hard to hold off sharing the science of the delicious cakes to my audience who devoured them in no time!  Thank you for sharing the amazing science and mechanics of the forever popular breakfast staple in my kitchen.  Can’t wait to try the new and improved version.  As I often joke: Chemistry rules :))
Judy

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