{"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

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After 30 minutes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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After 1 hour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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After 2 hours<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Taste-wise, the roasted sugar was pronouncedly less sweet than regular white sugar, with a distinctly mellower, nuttier, subtle caramel flavor. The roasted sugar also had a slightly coarser texture, with more clumping and larger, more irregular grains than the white sugar. Both James and I could tell the difference between the roasted sugar and white sugar in a blind taste test, although the different textures played a not insignificant part in differentiating the two.<\/p>\n

However, how the roasted sugar fares when incorporated into recipes with other ingredients, I don’t really know! I’ve only used it to make the above Chocolate Swiss buttercream (separate post on that coming soon!), and while it was very very good, I can’t say how much of that was due to the roasted sugar. The chocolate flavor of the frosting was definitely very pronounced, as opposed to the frosting just tasting like sugar, which I appreciated. However, I feel like Swiss meringue frosting tends to taste less sweet in general, and I did buy some very good chocolate, so I can’t say for sure the same wouldn’t have happened with regular white sugar or regular light brown sugar. Maybe eventually I’ll get around to doing a side-by-side taste test (or ask the Pancake Princess<\/a> to do one!). For what it’s worth, I did receive one compliment specifically on the frosting, so take from that what you will.<\/p>\n

I will say, however, that I\u00a0am excited about using the roasted sugar in more sugar-forward recipes that often tend to be tooth-achingly sweet and one-dimensional: marshmallows, Angel food cake, regular meringue. I’m also interested in making simple syrup with the roasted sugar, and using that in cocktails like old fashioneds or whiskey sours. Can you just imagine the description of this cocktail on a drink menu? Old Fashioned – Bulleit, bitters, maraschino,\u00a0roasted sugar<\/em>. Do stay tuned!!<\/p>\n

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Note: The pictures of the sugar in the baking dish were taken under the stove light, which I think washed out the color in the pictures. For the true, unfiltered color of the final product, the comparison pictures with white sugar were taken in natural light and offer the best representation.<\/p>\n

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Roasted Sugar<\/h2>\n\t
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Source: Bravetart<\/a>, by Stella Parks <\/p>\t<\/div>\n\t

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Ingredients<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t
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