Growing crystals at home from sugar

A sugar crystal will become an original gift, which can be presented complete with tea or coffee to your friends, or just an unusual treat that children will undoubtedly enjoy. This delicacy is sold in some stores, but it is not cheap. However, you can easily grow it yourself.

Security measures

Growing sugar crystals at home requires caution and safety.

1. Try not to use utensils from which you eat.
2. Use only quality products. Keep track of their expiration date. Do not use unknown substances.
3. After completing your work, thoroughly ventilate the room. Be sure to wash your hands with soap and water.
4. Use gloves, goggles and an apron. Of course, sugar will not harm you, but the crystals grown can be damaged by the fallen out eyelash, dust, drops of sweat.

Sugar crystals can serve not only as a souvenir decoration, but also as an unusual delicacy.

Be careful when working with sugar. Otherwise, the crystals simply will not turn out the way they should be.

Materials and tools

Prepare everything you need before starting work. You will need:

• water;
• sugar;
• sticks made of wood for mini-kebabs;
• transparent glasses;
• thick paper;
• deep dishes, such as a saucepan.

  You will need water, sugar, paper and sticks

Instead of sticks for kebabs, you can take sticks for sushi. It will cost more, but such a sugar crystal will be an original gift. If you are looking for a budget option, you can use peeled twigs, cotton wool, thread, or hair.

Want to make colorful sugar crystals? Add food coloring. Just do not forget that they must be natural and of high quality. After all, your children will want to enjoy this sweetness.

Use food coloring for colored crystals

We will indicate the ratio of water and sugar in the description of recipes for growing a crystal.

Sugar crystal on a stick at home

This easy method requires 5 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water. We will grow our sugar crystals on mini skewer sticks.

1. Take a quarter glass of water, 2 tablespoons of sugar, mix. Keep in a saucepan over a fire until the sugar is completely dissolved to form a syrup. Pour a little sugar onto the paper. Roll a stick previously dipped in syrup in it.

   A stick dipped in syrup and rolled in sugar

2. In order for the crystal to grow even, check: the grains of sugar should adhere equally on all sides.
3. Prepare some sticks and leave them for a while. They must dry completely, otherwise the saccharins may crumble when they get into the hot syrup. The crystal will have nothing to cling to, its growth will stop. It will be better if you prepare the sticks in advance, for example, in the evening.
4. Take a saucepan, pour 2 cups of water into it, add 2.5 cups of sugar. Put on medium heat and wait for complete dissolution, stirring constantly so that the syrup does not burn.After that, add the remaining sugar (2.5 cups) and cook again until completely dissolved. Turn off the heat, let the syrup sit for 15 minutes.

   Making the crystal sugar syrup

5. While the syrup is cooling, prepare the sticks, which should have completely dried by this time. Pierce the pieces of paper with them exactly in the middle. The hole should be such that the sheet fits snugly on the skewer.

   Slide a sheet of paper over the crystal blank

6. Pour hot syrup from a saucepan into transparent glasses. Do not allow the syrup to cool, otherwise the crystal will not grow.

   Pour the sugar syrup into glasses

7. If you decide to make colored crystals, it's time to add food coloring to the syrup, each glass has its own color.

   Add food coloring to the syrup

8. Place the blank for the crystal in the glass so that it does not rest against the bottom and does not touch the walls of the dish. The sheet of paper will not only hold the stick, but will also serve as a lid to protect the syrup from dust.

   Place the crystal blank in the syrup glass

Repeat this procedure with all blanks and leave to grow. This will take at least a week. The process will surely captivate your children, because the crystals grow every day.If no changes have occurred during this time, you will have to repeat the procedure from the beginning.

A quick way to grow a treat

Not everyone is willing to wait a whole week to get their sugar crystals. Therefore, you can use the following method, which will quickly grow sweetness. For this you need a small saucepan, hair, or strong thread and sugar.

1. Pour water into a saucepan, put on fire, boil. Start gradually pouring sugar into boiling water, and do this until it stops dissolving. This will give you a rich syrup.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and let the syrup cool for a while. Just in case, you can prepare a little more sugar solution: you may need to top up it.
3. Choose the largest dry sugar crystal. It needs to be wrapped with thread or hair and secured.
4. Dip the thread with the crystal into the syrup so that it is in a strictly vertical position, without touching the bottom and walls of the dishes. To do this, you can wrap the other end of the thread around a branch and place it over a saucepan with sugar solution.
5. Place the entire structure in a warm place. The syrup should cool slowly. Otherwise, the crystal will turn out to be wrong. Add the cooled sugar solution as the liquid level in the saucepan decreases.

It will take several days to grow sugar crystals

It will take 2-3 days to grow a sugar crystal in this way.

Note! Some craftsmen advise not to make syrup to add, but simply add sugar if necessary. But you need to do this carefully and not overdo it: excess sugar will simply settle to the bottom and will not participate in the crystallization process in any way.

Mandatory rules

In the cooking process, you must adhere to some recommendations:

• sugar must be evenly distributed over the stick. This will make the crystal almost symmetrical;
• dry the workpieces thoroughly after soaking them in syrup and roll in sugar. Grains of sand should not crumble, because they are the basis for future delicacies;

Sticks with sugar must be hung strictly vertically. Make sure that they do not come into contact with the sides and bottom of the cookware.

• the syrup in which you will lower the workpieces should be slightly above room temperature. That is why it is recommended to grow crystals in a warm room;
• a stick or thread with sugar must be hung strictly vertically. Make sure that it does not come into contact with the sides and bottom of the cookware.

How to make crystals from sugar (video)

Now you know another way to surprise your loved ones with something unusual.After all, such crystals can become an original gift, and if they are grown on sticks, then they can be used during tea drinking instead of spoons. Getting down to business with imagination, you will come up with a lot of ways to use this delicacy. Tell us what happened in the comments. Good luck to you!

Good afternoon! My name is Svetlana. This site has become for me not only an additional source of income, but also an opportunity to share my knowledge of housekeeping with you.

Chemistry is one of the scariest schoolchildren's nightmares. It is enough to mention the periodic table or valency to awaken in young hearts the desire to pretend to be asleep until the very receipt of the certificate. Newly minted graduates gladly hand over chemistry textbooks to the library and forget about complex formulas and calculations forever. But in vain, because thanks to this science, you can conduct fascinating experiments and create interesting things. For example, sugar crystals.

Lollipop growing equipment

Turning an ordinary kitchen into a modern candy lab is not difficult. You only need a few simple items:

• a large saucepan, preferably one with a thick bottom and a non-stick coating;
• 500 ml of water;
• 700-800 g sugar;
• thick paper or cardboard;
• glasses, cups or small jars;
• skewers.

Glasses or jars should be transparent, without stickers, so that you can observe how the crystal grows. An alternative to skewers is wooden ear sticks. One side, on which cotton wool is strung, must be cut off, and the other left. To grow a large crystal, it is recommended to buy sticks for sushi, but then you should also choose a jar with a volume of 2-3 liters.

Important: Dishes intended for boiling syrup and making sugar candy must be perfectly clean. No dust or detergent residue to ruin the entire experiment.

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Step 1: Prepare the skewers

A crystal is made up of just one ingredient: sugar dissolved in water. Solid particles attract smaller ones, which stick to each other and freeze. Sugar floating in water needs a base - a skewer. More specifically, solid crystals of sweetener that should stick to the stick.

At the first stage, you need to cook a not too thick syrup. Mix 50 ml of water with 2 tablespoons of sugar in a small saucepan. Heat the mixture, preferably over low heat, so that the liquid does not acquire an ugly brown tint. Stir the syrup constantly until the sweetener is completely dissolved. Bring to a boil, keep on the stove for 5-10 minutes. Leave the saucepan and cool slightly, pour the syrup into a saucer.

Put a piece of paper next to the plate, sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on it. Prepare a tray or saucer for skewers, which should be covered with foil, parchment paper or cling film.

Dip about half of the stick in syrup, wait for the sweet water to drain, and then pour out the wooden base in sugar. Make sure to get a layer of the same thickness. The more evenly the sugar sticks, the more beautiful the crystals will be.

Put the skewers on a plate. They should not come into contact with adjacent sticks. Set the workpiece aside, closer to a radiator or other heat source, so that the sugar freezes faster. It will take at least 12 hours for the skewers to dry completely and for the sweetener crystals to adhere securely to the wood base.

The remaining sugar can be used in the second step. The syrup will have to be prepared new, and the old one will have to be added to tea or poured out.

Step 2: base for the crystal

You need to try the skewers with your finger: if they seem damp, wait a little longer. Are the wood sticks and sugar dry? It's time to start making your homemade lollipop syrup.

1. Place a large saucepan on the stove and turn on low heat.
2. Pour 2 cups of water into a container, wait until it warms up.
3. When the liquid is hot, add a glass of sugar. Stir until the sweetener is completely dissolved.
4. Add another 1.5 cups of sugar. Stir until a foam forms on the surface of the syrup, which must be carefully removed with a spoon.
5. Immediately rearrange the pan on a stand or dip it into a container with cool water.

The syrup at this stage remains liquid and crystallizes easily. If you cook it a little longer, you get a sticky mass that is more suitable for making jam than for growing candy.

Wait until the syrup is warm. Pour the workpiece into glasses or jars. Fill containers 3/4 or half full. A piece of 500 ml of water is enough for about 7-8 glasses.

Tip: The pan for making the syrup should be high, because when heated, the mass rises and can "run away", staining the stove and the outer walls of the dishes.

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Step 3: fragile structure

Cut circles out of thick sheets of paper or cardboard. They should be slightly larger than the neck of a jar or glass. You don't have to make them perfectly round; ovals or even squares will do. The main thing is that they completely cover the container with syrup, protecting it from dust, and be sufficiently tough.

Punch a hole in the center of the circle into which a skewer is inserted. It is necessary that the wand does not fall through and does not move. You can attach a cap or cap to the tip located on the surface of the glass, which will prevent the skewer from dropping down under the weight of the growing crystal. A long clothespin will help to fix the stick, which should be carefully placed over the paper circle.

Step 4: Observation

Dip the skewers into glasses of syrup so that they do not touch the walls or the bottom. The cold slows down and stops the crystallization process, so the sweet water should not cool down. Place the glasses of syrup next to the radiator or in another warm place, preferably away from the sun.

The containers with crystals must not be moved, lifted, or twisted around the axis. It is forbidden to remove the skewers until the lollipop has grown to the desired size. One can only observe how small particles stick to the hardened base.

How long will the lollipop grow? Depends on the consistency and temperature of the syrup, as well as on the ratio of sugar and liquid. Some crystals grow in just a week, others need 10-12 days.

Fast food option

If you urgently need a sugar candy, it is recommended to try a different cooking technology:

1. Pour water into a saucepan, add nothing.
2. Bring the liquid to a boil, add 2-3 lodges of sugar.
3. Introduce the sweet component in small portions. Stop when sugar stops dissolving in liquid.
4. Remember to stir the syrup so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.
5. Set the pot with the sweet solution aside. It is recommended to prepare two servings of syrup, because sometimes one is not enough.
6. Sprinkle dry sugar with water and roll into a small ball. Wait until it hardens and wrap the workpiece with thread. Some people advise using a hair, but it is very thin and can break at any time.
7. Tie the other end of the thread to a branch or pencil so that the crystal is exactly in the center of the pan. Like a skewer, the sugar piece should not come into contact with the walls or the bottom of the container.
8. The syrup needs warmth. If the sweet solution cools too quickly, the crystal is irregular in shape.
9. You should regularly monitor the level of syrup in the pan, and if it drops, top up with a new portion.

Lollipop prepared in this way can be taken out for 2-3 days.

Important: You cannot add ordinary sugar to the syrup, which does not dissolve, but simply settles to the bottom. Only a warm, sweet solution that has undergone heat treatment.

how to make food coloring at home

Colored crystals

Lollipops, for which sugar and water were used, turn out to be white or slightly yellowish. If you want to prepare a crystal of a bright shade, you should add a synthetic or natural dye to the sweet solution.

Beetroot, cherry, or raspberry juice will make the candy red or pink. Blueberries will make them blue, and saffron or carrots will make them orange. A few drops of spinach juice and green crystals will grow in the jar.

The candies will turn yellow thanks to lemon zest, cranberries or red currants will make them scarlet, and blackberries or red cabbage will make them purple.

Natural colors can be added to the syrup during cooking, and synthetic food colors can be added to glasses. The sweet solution is mixed with flavors to enhance the taste of the crystals. It is forbidden to put dried fruits, chocolate chips and other solid components in glasses, otherwise the experiment will end in failure.

Homemade sugar candies decorate cakes and serve desserts on sticks for tea. With unusual crystals, you can congratulate a friend on the holiday or even start a business selling creative sweets.

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Video: how to make crystals from sugar

Let's be honest: these sugar crystals on a stick are hardly healthy sweets. But how many emotions growing them will bring to children! After all, this is a miracle that takes place right in front of the child's eyes.

Before growing a sugar crystal at home, you can tell your baby what crystals are and why they form in nature. And then, together with him, conduct this delicious scientific experiment.

Ingredients:

Sugar - 3 cups
Water - 1 glass
Food coloring and aromatic essences as needed.

You will also need:
Wooden skewers for barbecue
Glass glasses or jars according to the number of future candies
Pan
Clothespins or stationery clips

If you want to make a lot of colorful candies at once, you can increase the amount of sugar and water. The main thing is to keep the proportion of 3 parts sugar to 1 part water. It is in this solution that sugar crystallizes best.

Pour a glass of sugar into a saucepan, pour a glass of water and heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Then add the remaining sugar in small portions and stir. Make sure the water does not come to a boil.

See also: Cranberries in sugar: how to make a healthy vitamin dessert

When all the sugar is dissolved, your syrup will cloud and thicken. Now you can add aromatic essences and simmer a little more.

Remove the prepared syrup from heat and cool slightly. Pour it into prepared jars, add a drop of food coloring and stir until a uniform color is obtained.

Moisten wooden skewers for kebabs with syrup to the level of future candies, roll them well in sugar and let dry.

Grains of sugar on sticks will form the basis for crystallization. Therefore, try to ensure that the sticks are evenly sugared and dry well on all sides. If the sugar does not dry out properly, it will simply dissolve in the syrup, and the crystals will have nothing to cling to.

Now you need to fix the skewers so that they are immersed in the colored syrup, but do not touch the bottom of the cans. Ordinary wooden clothespins will help with this.

Now put the jars in a quiet place at room temperature, and don't forget to watch the sugar crystals grow.

After three days, your lollipops will look like this.

After one week, the sugar crystals are almost ready. They can be removed and placed on a paper towel to dry.

Agree, it turned out very beautifully. Do-it-yourself sugar crystals can be used for their intended purpose - like lollipops.

And you can beautifully complement them with a tea serving, or even a glass of wine.

Idea and photo:

Read also: Unusual caramel: dragon candy (PHOTOS)

See also: Fragrant Pumpkin Fudge: A Simple Pumpkin Nut Candy Recipe

See also: Homemade apple marshmallows: very simple and incredibly tasty

Few people are able to recall school chemistry lessons without shuddering. Boring and incomprehensible formulas, indistinct names of substances, similar to the words of an exotic language ... laboratory experiments were the only outlet! So why not remember your school years (or if you are still studying, not apply the knowledge you gain in practice) and not grow crystals at home? After all, crystals are one of the most beautiful phenomena of inanimate nature. Shining in the light, shiny, bizarre shapes, transparent colorless or possessing bright juicy colors: scarlet, azure, lemon yellow ...

Do you want to know, how to grow a crystal at home from regular sugar? Then read this article and you will find out everything!

Safety precautions when growing crystals at home

A warning! Before we move on to growing crystals at home (even as safe as sugar crystals) it will not be superfluous to remind you of the need to observe safety precautions:

• do not use food utensils during the experiment, otherwise you can get poisoned;
• do not use unknown or expired substances;
• after completing the experiments, thoroughly ventilate the room and wash your hands with soap and water;
• during the experiment, use gloves, goggles and an apron;
• if reagents come into contact with skin or eyes, rinse immediately with running water!
• keep reagents away from children! Be extremely careful and careful!

And now, you can proceed to the experience itself.

How to grow a crystal from sugar

Let's start with perhaps the safest and most affordable option - growing a crystal from regular sugar at home. We will grow an unusual crystal, and a crystal on a stick! It should turn out very nice and unusual. So, here's a step-by-step guide on how to grow a crystal from sugar:

1. First, you need to prepare blanks - sticks on which we will grow sugar crystals at home. More precisely, we need 2 sets of sticks. That is, there should be twice as many of them as the number of crystals to be grown (it is optimal to grow 5 crystals at a time).

Any sticks are suitable: thin twigs, sushi sticks, etc.

Then you need to make some sugar syrup. To do this, heat a quarter glass of water with two tablespoons of granulated sugar until the mixture reaches the consistency of a syrup. Dip one of the sticks in the syrup and dip it in granulated sugar so that the saccharins cover it evenly. One end of the stick (half or one third of the length) should remain clean. This will be the "handle" of the sugar crystal.

First of all, you need to prepare the blanks: roll the sticks dipped in syrup in granulated sugar

Repeat the operation with the remaining sticks.

Leave the sticks to dry overnight (or, if unbearable, at least 2-3 hours).

2. In the morning, take a saucepan and pour 2 full glasses of water into it. Pour sugar there: 2.5 cups. Turn on a low heat and constantly stirring sugar, wait until it is completely dissolved.

Add another 2.5 cups of sugar to the resulting sugar syrup. The new mixture should also be boiled until completely dissolved.

Then the fire is turned off, and the syrup is left on the stove to cool for 15-20 minutes. At this time, our seed sticks should be prepared. Take the sticks prepared yesterday and at the upper part, where there are no saccharins, tie the second stick with a thread crosswise. This is necessary so that the seed can be vertically lowered into a glass with a solution when growing a crystal from sugar.

Instead of a second stick, as a holder, you can use…. an ordinary clothespin!

3. Pour the hot syrup gently into the glasses.Please note that the syrup must be still hot! Otherwise, nothing will come of it.

If you want to the crystal was colored, you can add a little food coloring to the syrup. Add dyes of different colors to each glass of syrup and get colorful crystals!

In the center of each of the glasses with syrup, lower the blank sticks vertically. They should not touch either the bottom of the glass, let alone its walls! The second stick will act as a holder. By the way, instead of it, you can use thick cardboard by sticking a stick with a seed into it. Or a clothespin.

Glasses with syrup and chopsticks - leave the blanks in a warm place for 7 days

Place the glasses with chopsticks in a warm and secluded place where no one will accidentally drop them, and cover them with a film or newspaper to protect them from dust. It will take 7 days to grow crystals from sugar at home. So be patient, after all, it doesn't take as long as growing a lemon tree!

4. After a week, you can gently remove the crystals from the glasses and enjoy them! Don't be discouraged if something didn't work out the first time. Try again and everything will work out for sure! But usually, if you do everything according to the instructions, there are no problems with growing crystals from sugar at home.

You will end up with such cute multicolored sugar crystals!

Received crystals can be given away to friends (an original gift!) Or you can give a whole bunch of multi-colored crystals to your girlfriend (she hardly expects this). Or you can keep it as a beautiful souvenir.

That's all. Next time you will learn how to grow a crystal from salt, soda and copper sulfate at home. Happy experiences!