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I've been making these dessert snacks for years. The last 2 times I've baked them, the sugar has come out gritty and the butter seems all absorbed. Very dry. My recipe calls for brown sugar, butter, and (added pecans after the boiling).

After boiling on the stove for 2 minutes this is poured onto graham crackers in a greased pan. Then it's baked at 350 degrees for 10 min. When I take them out it seems all moisture has been sucked out and everything falls apart and sugar is gritty.

I'm using a Convection oven, but I have done all of this the same way for almost 40 years and don't know what's going on.


Anastasia Zendaya
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Cindy
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    Can you list the full recipe and instructions? – mroll Dec 24 '20 at 23:59
  • Hello Cindy, and welcome. It would be helpful if you provided the full recipe and procedure. Do you have a candy thermometer you could use? Are you aiming for a chewy butterscotch candy or something like toffee? Is this a new oven...? I will go ahead and say a quick fix *might* be to add a glob of corn syrup to your mixture, and possibly add the pecans preboil as well. (You'll want to stir a little keep them from burning, but adding the cold powdery nuts could initiate the crystallization.) – kitukwfyer Dec 25 '20 at 00:06

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I'm guessing this is for some type of fudge or praline?

There are a lot of variables that can change the crystallization of sugar when making a sugar syrup. Things like temperature, how clean your pot is, whether a wooden spoon is wet, how fast and when you stir, etc.

Using an interfering agent like butter or cream helps prevent the solution from creating large crystals. But even with those agents undissolved sugar or impurities can grow into large crystals.

Without seeing what you're cooking and how you're cooking it I can't give you a direct answer. But the best course of action you can take is to pay particular attention to cleaning and drying your pot, the implement you use to stir, and the complete dissolving of the sugar during the initial creation of the syrup.

This article has a lot of good information on sugar syrup and may point out something you're doing that could be done better.

https://www.finecooking.com/article/learn-how-to-control-crystallization-for-successful-sweets

BobKayser
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