Sugar color - the production and use of the famous food coloring

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Culinators from ancient times have learned to use all kinds of food colorings in their craft. Changing the color of products is not easy, but very interesting. Warm brown shades are obtained thanks to a dye known as sugar color. In this article, we will tell you how to make it and how to apply it.

Making sugar color

Making sugar color at home is not difficult at all. All you need to make this dye is sugar and, in some cases, water, nothing else.

Pour a few tablespoons of sugar into a metal bowl and put on a small fire. After a few minutes, the sugar will begin to melt and bubble. You need to remove it from the fire at the moment when it acquires the desired shade of yellow-brown color. Melted sugar should be poured into a bowl folded from food foil. It will be more convenient if this bowl is made square. The main thing is that it does not leak. For reliability, use two- or three-layer foil. When sugarcool and harden slightly, on it with a knife you need to make longitudinal and transverse grooves, trying to make the squares the same. Finally hardened sugar breaks easily along these grooves.

Using sugar color

For coloring, take a few squares and fill them with hot liquid, then stir until the burnt sugar is completely dissolved. The resulting brown liquid can be used to change the color of drinks, cereals, broths, dough, fondant, icing, fudge or jelly.

Sugar color is also used for coloring alcoholic beverages. The amber color of cognacs is the merit of this dye. On the labels it is referred to as E-150. To independently color an alcoholic drink, burnt sugar should be dissolved in the alcohol for which it is intended.

E-150

E-150 food supplement has several additional markings, which are written in brackets, to the right of the main name. E-150 (1) is natural burnt sugar. All the rest are its synthetic analogues. They have the same color as natural burnt sugar, but lack the traditional caramel flavor.

The benefits and harms of dye

Burnt sugar is no more harmful than regular white sugar. In some cases, doctors recommend giving it to children for resorption from a dry cough. If we consider synthetic sugar color, its harm can be noticeable only if it is used inlarge quantity. There is usually not much of it in the composition of foods, so you can not be afraid of unpleasant consequences.

Since many people believe that in the total mass of products that we bring from stores, the composition of artificial components is so large that our bodies do not have time to get rid of them, in this case we can only advise one thing - to cook our own food, and use semi-finished products as little as possible. If you learn how to make sugar color with your own hands, which is not difficult at all, then you will certainly find a use for it in a variety of cases.

For example, you can make the famous creme brulee ice cream. It owes its unique taste and color to sugar color. If you cook it yourself from the best products, then it will turn out no worse than the creme brulee, which was made in St. Petersburg before the invention of artificial flavors and colors.

Creme brulee ice cream

Crème brulee ice cream is a dessert that allows you to enjoy all the advantages of sugar caramel - its most delicate taste and unusually appetizing color. The natural dye sugar color, as we wrote above, is in harmony with various products, but the palm can be safely given to dairy products. To make ice cream, you need 4 tbsp. pour spoons of granulated sugar into a non-enamelled metal bowl and melt. Boil should be until the caramel acquires a shade of onion peel. Bring 100 ml of cream to a boil and pour into caramel. creamy caramelstir and leave to cool.

Four egg yolks rub with three tablespoons of powdered sugar and combine with creamy caramel. Whip 600 ml of heavy (33%) cream with three tablespoons of powdered sugar. Combine whipped cream with caramel mixture and mix well. Place the creme brulee in a bowl and place in the freezer. To make the ice cream soft, it needs to be stirred every 15 minutes. The duration of freezing depends on the individual characteristics of the freezer. At -20 degrees, ice cream will be ready in one to two hours.

Colouring various desserts

Prepared according to our recommendation, the solid sugar color dye in many recipes is recommended to be dissolved in water, but, as practice shows, this is not always justified. In some desserts, excess water adversely affects the taste and texture of the finished dish. Since sugar color dissolves well in milk, and it is part of a large number of sweet dishes, it is better to take hot milk rather than water to dissolve burnt sugar.

Original ways to use sugar color

Sugar color of different shades allows you to make creams, jellies and other desserts with puff and decorated elements of different tones of caramel color. To obtain a sugar color of different shades, it must be removed from the fire at different times. At the beginning of boiling, the lightest tone is obtained, one minute after boiling - medium brown, and after 2 minutes after boiling, the color of the color will begin to resembleiodine solution. It is not necessary to overexpose sugar on fire - from a long boil it starts to taste bitter.

Sugar color has a peculiar taste that goes well not only with dairy products, but also with some fruits, such as apples and pears. It also harmonizes well with various nuts - it is no coincidence that this component is so popular with lovers of sweet roasting, which consists of roasted nuts and burnt sugar. By adding milk or cream and dried fruits to this duet, you can prepare the famous sherbet, which is so popular in the Middle East.