Culinary specialists have long since learned to use all kinds of food colors 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 do it and how to apply it.
Sugar color making
Making sugar color at home is a snap. To make this dye, you only need sugar and, in some cases, water - nothing more.
In a metal dish you need to pour a few tablespoons of sugar and put on a small fire. After a few minutes, the sugar will begin to melt and bubble. It must be removed from the fire at the moment when it acquires the desired shade of yellow-brown color. Melted sugar should be poured into a bowl made of food foil. It will be more convenient if you make this bowl square. The main thing is that it does not leak. For reliability, use a two- or three-layer foil. When the sugar cools and slightly hardens, it is necessary to make longitudinal and transverse grooves on it with a knife, trying to make the squares the same. The finally hardened sugar easily breaks down these grooves.
The use of sugar color
For staining, 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, mastic, glaze, fudge or jelly.
Sugar color is also used for coloring alcohol. The amber color of cognacs is the merit of this dye. On the labels it is designated as E-150. In order to color the alcohol-containing drink on its own, burnt sugar should be dissolved in the alcohol for which it is intended.
E-150
Food supplement E-150 has several additional markings, which are written in brackets, to the right of the main name. E-150 (1) is a natural roasted sugar. All the rest are its synthetic analogues. They have the same color as natural roasted sugar, but they have no traditional caramel flavor.
The benefits and harms of the 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 consumed in large quantities. As a part of food products it is usually a little, so that you can not be afraid of unpleasant consequences.
Since many people think that in the total mass of products that we bring from stores, the composition of artificial components is so large that our organisms do not have time to get rid of them, in this case we can only advise one thing - to cook your own food, and use semi-finished products as possible less often. If you learn to make sugar color with your own hands, and this is not difficult at all, then you will certainly find 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 the sugar color. If you cook it yourself from the best products, then it will turn out no worse than the creme brulee that was made in St. Petersburg before the invention of artificial flavors and dyes.
Creme brulee ice cream
Ice cream creme brulee is a dessert that allows you to enjoy all the advantages of sugar caramel - its most delicate taste and unusually delicious color. The natural dye sugar color, as we wrote above, harmoniously combines with different products, but you can safely give the palm to the dairy. To make ice cream, you need 4 tbsp. tablespoons of sugar pour into an unenameled metal bowl and melt. Boil until the caramel has a shade of onion peel. Bring 100 ml of cream to a boil and pour into caramel. Stir the creamy caramel and let it cool.
Grind four egg yolks with three tablespoons of powdered sugar and combine with creamy caramel. Beat 600 ml of fatty (33%) cream with three tablespoons of powdered sugar. Combine whipped cream with caramel mixture and mix thoroughly. Put creme brulee in a bowl and put in the freezer. To make the ice cream soft, it needs to be mixed every 15 minutes. The duration of freezing depends on the individual characteristics of the freezer. At -20 degrees, the ice cream will be ready in one to two hours.
Coloring various desserts
The solid color colorant sugar prepared according to our recommendation is recommended to be dissolved in water in many recipes, but, as practice shows, this is not always justified. In some desserts, excess water affects the taste and texture of the finished dish. Since the sugar color is highly soluble in milk, and it is part of a large number of sweet foods, it is better to take hot milk rather than water to dissolve the burnt sugar.
Original ways to use sugar color
Sugar color in different shades allows you to make creams, jellies and other desserts in layers and decorated with elements of different tones of caramel color. To obtain sugar color in 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 2 minutes after boiling, the color of the tint will resemble a solution of iodine. It is not necessary to overtake sugar on the fire - from a long boil, it begins to bitter.
Sugar color has a peculiar taste, which goes well not only with dairy products, but also with some fruits, for example, apples and pears. It also harmonizes well with various nuts - it is no coincidence that this component is so popular among lovers of sweet roasting, which consists of roasted nuts and roasted sugar. Adding milk or cream and dried fruits to this duet, you can cook the famous sorbet, which is so popular in the Middle East.