{"id":679,"date":"2018-06-19T15:34:17","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T15:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trialbyfryer.com\/?p=679"},"modified":"2018-06-21T17:08:23","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T17:08:23","slug":"roasted-sugar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trialbyfryer.com\/2018\/06\/roasted-sugar\/","title":{"rendered":"Roasted Sugar"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As you know if you’ve read my previous post about homemade Reese’s cups<\/a>, I am currently obsessed with Stella Parks<\/a>. And I saw Stella’s new post about\u00a0Chocolate Swiss Buttercream<\/a>\u00a0the other day, and fell down the rabbit hole of WANT. NOWWWW. This isn’t really a “NOWWWW” sort of frosting, though (ha!), as Stella waxes rather poetically about the benefits and complexities and beautiful flavors produced when you use\u00a0roasted sugar, aka “granulated caramel,”<\/a>\u00a0in the frosting. Now, you’re right, I could have just used plain ole’ light brown sugar. But, because I have severe FOMO, and because\u00a0I have been inspired by my friend Heidi, who has been fermenting all sorts of things lately (kimchi, kombucha), just for the fun of culinary experimentation, I dove headfirst into roasting sugar at 325\u00b0F, for 2 hours, on a sweltering 97\u00b0F Chicago heat wave day. Thank God for air conditioning.<\/p>\n So what was the verdict? Well, visually and olfactorily, the results were stunning! It was super fun to watch the sugar slowly turn color from snow white to a sandy light brown. Every 30 minutes, as I took the sugar out of the oven, the tops of the peaks of sugar would be lightly toasted, and the bottom would be a darker tan, creating pretty brown swirls in the pan when I stirred it. Also,\u00a0the house smelled amazing when the sugar was roasting. Light, caramelly, and slightly meringue-y, like being next door to a Werther’s factory. I only roasted the sugar for two hours, but even in that time, the resulting product was a beautiful, crumbly, sandy brown sugar that was yet lighter in color and drier in texture than ordinary light brown sugar. Overall, it was immensely satisfying in and of itself to watch white sugar transform and be responsible for coaxing it along.<\/p>\n