Vacuum inflated sugar bubble

[daekkyn]

A few days ago, I wanted to make some molded sugar, I therefore heated sugar, water and glucose to ~160°C (320°F) but some bubbles where present which I did not want in the casting. I decided to make use of my chamber vacuum sealer to degas the sirup. It did not turned out as planed however it did turn out quite fun:

 

This is the result right after going out of the vacuum chamber. All the bubbles expanded as expected, but instead of bursting, they cooled and solidified which created this extremly fragile, alien looking sugar construction. The smell and taste was the one of cotton candy, the texture was lighter than cotton candy.

 

Encouraged by this discovery, I tried to get more samples. I reheated the sugar until I got a thick liquid and stirred to manually introduce more bubbles. Poured some into a metalic lid, placed it in the chamber and pulled the vacuum:

 

I had to try multiple times to get the above results. Here are some observations:

• The temperature of the sirup is very important: if it's too hot, the bubbles will expand and burst, leaving you with no bubbles, if it is too cold, the bubbles won't expand.
• I guess there is an optimal temperature the sugar needs to have at the moment the vacuum is pulled to maximize the bubbles volume.
• It is important not to restore the pressure before the bubbles have cooled or they won't be strong enough to resist the pressure and will collapse. 30 secs should be enough.
• Glucose might not be essential.
• The result is very sensitive to humidity (see following photo). Using isomalt instead of sucrose might help.
• You probably need to reach the hard crack stage for the sugar to be hard enough (160°C ,320°F).
• The bubbles are very fragile, it is difficult to detach them from the base without breaking them.

If the humidity is too high, the bubbles slowly melt and leave a hairy looking sculpture:

 

A (slightly boring) video of the vacuum stage:

 

If anyone feels like experimenting with this techique, I'd love to see the results.

 

[Smithy]

I'm not equipped to do any of what you've just done, but I love reading about it.  Thanks for posting!  I hope others also try it, and post their results.

[CatPoet]

I wonder what happens if you did that to honey comb...  Could you please try?

[teonzo]

Thanks for posting this! This technique seems to have some fun potential!

 

 

 

Teo