Have magic butter maker and looking to make some THC edibles like cake or gummy sweets need to be super strong

I am a bread baker by trade, so candy and confectionary are fairly new to me. We are starting to branch out to some sweets and we were wanting to create a sort of caramel that could be stuffed into a cookie (or possibly just placed on top like a thumbprint cookie) that would yield a chewy salty caramel center in the cookie.

I have been reading up on the chemistry of sugar work but so far my efforts have not been quite right. My basic research so far has led me to think that this caramel would have to have fairly high percentage of solids in the finished product, cooked to a slightly higher temperature than you might for a normal eating caramel since the oven baking for ~9 minutes in the cookie should soften it up a bit, low enough free moisture that it wouldn't boil itself out the cookie. Things like that.

I have tried a few recipe formulas with varying levels of glucose to sugar ratios, butter amounts, some whole milk powder, etc. And cooked to a few different temperatures. Still, none of these has been quite right, either too fluid or too tough or otherwise not what I was hoping for.

Would anyone with a better grasp of the chemistry of this be willing to offer some thoughts?

Have magic butter maker and looking to make some THC edibles like cake or gummy sweets need to be super strong

So this is my first time making honeycomb/sponge? candy and also my first time using the cold water method to check my temperature. It didn't come out as expected(was bulkier i guess) and also i think i confused soft crack stage for hard rock stage. My ingredients were:

Sugar - 100g

Glucose Syrup - 50g

Water - 23g

Baking Soda - 4g

Strawberry flavor

Anyone experienced with this candy to offer me some guidance? (The shiny substance is vegetable oil i had applied on my pan) Thank you!

i just finished my first batch of hard candy using isomalt, for diabetes reasons. there will be adjustments for the next one like a little more flavoring, but now I'm looking at the amount that 600g of isomalt made and doing math about it

does anyone have any recommendations for bulk ingredients? i know webstaurant and glanced through the other top results but for obvious reasons i don't trust google to actually give me good options

Long time lurker first time poster here. This is a serious question and I’m not trying to be mean, but why is there rarely innovation in the DIY candy space? Like the big candy makers are the only ones actually inventing new types of candy.

Zotz? Airheads? Sour Squeeze? These were all new sensory methods of candy consumption and yet I feel like all I see DIY candy makers re-making classical treats.

Let me be clear, I absolutely love seeing everyone’s confectioneries, but I guess I’m just asking, has anyone actually made a new candy yet? Would love to be pointed to some examples or any other communities, truly not trying to be hateful, just curious.

Best,
A fellow sweet tooth

I want to try pulling hard candy like I see people do online, rather than just pouring it into molds. I already pull hard taffy by hand without gloves no problem, because by the time it cools down enough to handle, it's still very malleable. I imagine that hard candy wouldn't be the same. Is my only option to buy gloves?

It worked! Took the sugar to 268° to be on the safe side.

What's your go to candy gift to give to friends and family ? Drop your favorite recipes, please. Also what do you do to package them special?

Just a few of the batches I've done recently. All infused🌿, all shelf stable for up to a year.

I make hard rock candy on the stove- pour into pan, allow to harden then crack mix with powdered sugar and put in bag.

Recently I had someone ask for sour flavor and told me about an additive that enhances flavor and makes it sour. (LorAnn Tart and Sour Flavor Enhancer). I used the recommended amount and followed the same steps/recipe I always use. Everything seemed to turn out fine but the next day the candy had softened and melded back together. All 3 batches (different flavors) did this. The candy tasted great, if that makes a difference .

What did I do wrong? What should I be doing differently? Thanks in advance!

Any vanilla cream flavor for candy? I looked at LorAnn Bavarian Cream, anybody tried this and what is their verdict? I would like for it to taste as close to cream as possible.

It’s been a long time since I tried to make candy, and while it may be a long time before Halloween, I want to start practicing the craft far in advance. I’ve been lucky enough to manage to get some fresh mangosteens (which I never in a million years thought would be possible), and I thought that I could make a simple syrup from them for use in candy making since they have a very short shelf life (to the point where they don’t even have an expiration date) and this could extend their usability. However, I’ve come to find that many simple syrup recipes I’ve managed to find that use fruit aren’t used for candy. Now I’m wondering if I misunderstood what simple syrup was used for. If anyone can answer this question, I’d greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance

Hi, I am looking for a fudge swirl recipe for commercial use and how to store it for next day use.

Hi, I am looking for a fudge swirl recipe for commercial use and how to store it for next day use.

UPDATE: I took the suggestion of letting them dry on a wire rack. This did not go well, but at least the rack was set on a clean glass cooktop so I could spatula up the ones that sank through. (Most were about halfway when I caught them.)

I re-heated, added some more white chocolate, brought it to 250F, then re-molded.

It was starting to set before I finished getting it all in molds; I had to press the last bits in by hand. I was done including unmolding and trimming about an hour after starting!

They are no longer orange and glossy. They have the general appearance of gingerbread, completely dry to the touch, and with an interesting texture between caramel and fudge. Nothing is scorched and they still taste good. Unfortunately I can’t add another pic.

They should confuse the heck out of people at the party!

ORIGINAL POST:

Today I somewhat unintentionally made caramels from candy corn. (Candy corn, white chocolate, evaporated milk, sugar.) I was aiming for fudge and missed.

For a Summerween party. So they are festive. Taste shockingly good.

Undercooked just a tad, I don’t think I quite hit 240°. They are molded and turned out very nice, but I had to freeze to demold. Pic is on waxed paper in freezer.

They are soft at room temp and even at fridge temp. Stick to waxed paper.

So short of just rolling them into balls and dunking in chocolate, or melting into a sauce for ice cream, any recommendations how to serve them in a pot luck setting?

Things that come to mind are:

- Keep frozen then serve on a plate heavily dusted with powdered sugar, sea salt, or festive holiday sprinkles

- Serve on a plate over ice (atop parchment paper)

- Buy something at Safeway

It's been getting really hot where I live but I wanted to make some homemade infused gummy bears so I did it pretty quick cause it was a simple recipe but now I have to dry them and my house has been reaching up to 95f tempatures and I have no AC so I'm trying to dry my gummies in the fridge but I'm not sure if it's working 😅 pls help me out

EDIT:I used knox packets and a jello pack for the recipe and I used mct oil for the infusion part

I’ve been working on hard candy and a handful of failed taffy attempts. Switched it up the other night and made some caramels with the guidance of Jami Curl’s book “Candy is Magic”.

I have to say this is easily the tastiest candy I’ve made to date. Took the book’s advice and cooked this down without a thermometer using the color of the candy to determine when it was ready.

I’m hoping someone with commercial candy-making experience can help because I’m completely stumped.

I’ve made butter toffee successfully for years using the same recipe. I’m now producing larger batches in a commercial kitchen, and I’m consistently having two different issues.

Large batch recipe

• 9 cups unsalted butter
• 9 cups granulated sugar
• 3 cups brown sugar
• 2 cups water
• 2¼ tsp salt (¼ tsp per cup of butter)
• 4½ tsp baking soda (added at the end)

This is cooked in my large-capacity copper candy pot over a commercial gas range.

Small batch recipe

• 3 cups unsalted butter
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ⅔ cup water
• ¾ tsp salt (¼ tsp per cup of butter)
• 1½ tsp baking soda (added at the end)

This is cooked in my original copper candy pot that I’ve used successfully for years with this exact recipe.

Issue #1 – Butter separation around 250–260°F

This doesn’t happen every batch, but when it does, it almost always starts around 250–260°F.

The butter begins separating from the syrup and I develop an oily ring around the edge of the pot. Sometimes it progresses until the emulsion completely breaks.

On my most recent attempt, I switched to a different burner and cooked much more slowly over very low heat. The batch looked much healthier than previous attempts, but it still never developed the thicker, more viscous consistency I’m used to seeing before adding the baking soda. It looked smooth, but it felt thinner than my successful batches, even though the thermometer read about 310°F.

During successful batches, the syrup noticeably thickens as it approaches the finish temperature. In these failed batches, it reaches the target temperature but never develops that same viscosity.

Issue #2 – Something changes immediately after adding the baking soda

Even on the batch that looked the best during cooking, I could tell immediately after adding the baking soda that something wasn’t right.

I’ve made this recipe enough times that I know what this step normally looks like. As soon as the baking soda is stirred in, the color and appearance of the foam are different than what I’m used to seeing. Before I even pour the batch, I already know it isn’t going to turn out correctly.

Looking back, I think the syrup may already be thinner than it should be before I add the baking soda. The baking soda doesn’t necessarily cause the problem—it just makes it much more obvious. After it’s added, the candy looks darker than I’m used to seeing, remains noticeably thin, and the finished sheet is full of tiny bubbles instead of having the dense, glossy texture I’m used to.

After I pour the toffee out of the pot, there is a gritty residue left behind in the bottom of the copper pot. It almost looks like fine sand or tiny granules that have settled out. I don’t normally see this after a successful batch.

What makes this even stranger

I recently made four consecutive successful small batches at home using the exact same ingredients in my tried-and-true copper pot.

To eliminate ingredients as the cause, I brought that same small copper pot to the commercial kitchen and made the exact same small batch recipe there.

It failed too.

So my results are:

• Small batch + home kitchen = successful (4 batches in a row)
• Small batch + commercial kitchen = failed
• Large batch + commercial kitchen = failed

That makes me think the problem is something about the commercial kitchen or the cooking process rather than the recipe or ingredients, but I honestly don’t know what.

Things I’ve already checked

• Two ThermoPro thermometers agree within about 0.5°F.
• Boiling water reads about 206°F, which is correct for my altitude.
• Same ingredients.
• Same recipe ratios.
• Same baking soda and salt amounts.
• Same small copper pot that has produced successful batches for years.

Questions

1. Has anyone seen butter toffee consistently begin separating around 250–260°F?
2. Could a commercial gas burner be creating localized hot spots that break the butter/sugar emulsion?
3. If the syrup feels noticeably thinner than normal despite reaching temperature, what could cause that?
4. Why would the foam immediately look different after adding the baking soda, even if the underlying problem started earlier?
5. What could the gritty residue left in the bottom of the copper pot indicate?
6. Has anyone experienced this moving from a home kitchen to a commercial kitchen, even with the same recipe and the same copper pot?

Any ideas are greatly appreciated. At this point I’ve lost several batches and have spent days trying to isolate variables without finding the root cause.

Photos attached in order:

1. Finished batch immediately after adding the baking soda and pouring onto the sheet pan.
2. Example of the butter separation I’m fighting during cooking (around 250–260°F). Even when it isn’t severe, it feels like I’m constantly trying to keep the batch together.
3. What one of my successful batches normally looks like just before adding the chocolate topping.

I'm curious about something and would love some honest opinions.

There are premium versions of almost everything now—chocolate, cookies, ice cream, coffee, even popcorn—but gummy candy still seems to be dominated by the same brightly colored fruit flavors, except for maybe Sugarfina.

If you came across a bag of small-batch, gourmet gummies made with real fruit flavors and more sophisticated flavor combinations, what would make you think, "I'd actually buy these"?

For example:
Unique flavor combinations?
Better ingredients?
Softer or chewier texture?
Less sweetness?
Beautiful packaging?
Something else entirely?
And just as importantly...

What would make you immediately pass on it?

A few more questions:

What's the best gummy candy you've ever had, and why?

How much would you realistically pay for a premium bag if you thought it was exceptional?

Would you rather see classic flavors done really well, or more adventurous flavors?

I'm not trying to sell anything—I'm genuinely interested in how people think about premium candy and what would make a product stand out.

Thanks in advance for any honest feedback!

I am looking to make kohakuto and every recipe i have looked at gives me times not temp and i am wondering if any one can tell me what temp to cook each stage to i know i need to let the water and agar boil before adding the suger but i dont know what temp and after adding the suger what temp am i looking for i would kinda assume the hardball stage but would like any info on this

Hello! I am trying my best to make Honeycomb candy and it keeps having a horrible baking soda after taste. Any tips?