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I decided to use agar agar for the first time, to make vegan kaki "golden latte" pots.

Following the manufacturer's instructions, I mixed the agar agar powder into the liquid (at first only spiced almond milk) and brought it to a boil. Then I added the fruit puree - kaki fruit with a little bit of ginger - and dispersed it well. I left it a few more minutes on the hob before starting to pour into the individual molds.

When I started pouring, I realized that the mixture had started making lumps, which surprised me.

  1. Are these lumps because I overheated the mixture (the instructions were to boil for "at least 2 minutes"), because of some chemical reaction (maybe the ginger? The kaki was a non-astringent variety) or something else?

  2. I was tempted to blend it back to a smooth state before pouring, and actually did so after filling the first two molds. But now I wonder if it will gel again when cooled, or not. Is the blending of lumped still-warm agar-agar mass OK, or will it interfere with setting?

So how can I prevent agar-agar lumps, and if they do happen, can (and should) I do something about them?

Update the pots gelled, so blending the mass smooth (while still warm) didn't stop the agar-agar from working. I am still interested in knowing more about what happened and why, and whether I should bother to do the blending if it happens again.

rumtscho
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  • What temperature was the fruit puree? Agar agar gels at a relatively high temperature (.vs. say gelatin or cornstarch), so cold fruit into hot liquid might cause local gelling from local cooling. While I like what it can do, I find that I'm quite picky about how much is too much - when it's right, the finished items have a nice texture, but when there's too much they are just too stiff to be nice. – Ecnerwal Nov 24 '22 at 01:25
  • @Ecnerwal it was room temperature, which right now is about 20 C. There was a lot of it, maybe 500 g puree to 800 g milk. And indeed, it became stiffer than I would have liked, with 50 g agar for the combined mass. – rumtscho Nov 24 '22 at 13:42
  • Looking at my notes for a pie, I found a teaspoon of powder (roughly 4 grams per a reference) too much for ~1000 grams of pie filling, and half that to be about right. Which would make my ratio (for what I was looking for stiffness-wise - pie could be cut without slumping, but none of the "snap" that too much gives) about 2.5g for your recipe, as a point of information. – Ecnerwal Nov 24 '22 at 23:38
  • @Ecnerwal thanks! I fished the box out of the paper bin and my numbers were off (I used 25 g powder, not 30, and the powder is only 30% agar agar). Still, it is 3 times as much as you would have used, so I will note it for next time. – rumtscho Nov 25 '22 at 10:18

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