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Glace Nuts
2 cups sugar 1 cup boiling water 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar Put ingredients in a smooth saucepan, stir, place on range, and heat to boiling-point. Boil without stirring until syrup begins to discolor, which is 310 degree F. Wash off sugar which adheres to sides of saucepan, as in making fondant. Remove saucepan from fire, and place in larger pan of cold water to instantly stop boiling. Remove from cold water and place in a saucepan of hot water during dipping. Take nuts separately on a long pin, dip in syrup to cover, remove from syrup, and place on oiled paper.
A straightforward hard-crack sugar syrup used as a clear coating for whole nuts. The original gives the one number that matters, 310F, and everything else follows from holding the syrup near it.
- The hinge: 310FPull the syrup as it reaches 310F and shows the first faint straw color, as the recipe directs. Taken further it darkens toward caramel; short of it, the coating may stay tacky rather than glassy. A thermometer is more reliable than judging by eye.
- Cream of tartarThe 1/8 teaspoon is there to invert part of the sucrose so the syrup resists crystallizing. Do not increase it, or the glaze will stay soft and sticky instead of setting brittle.
- Washing the pan sidesWipe the inside walls above the syrup with a wet pastry brush, or cover the pan for the first minute or two so condensing steam does the work. A single stray sugar crystal falling back in will seed the whole batch grainy.
- "A smooth saucepan"Means one with no scratches or pitting, which give crystals a foothold. A heavy stainless or lined copper pan is right; avoid a scarred nonstick surface.
- The cold-water bathSet the pan into a wide bowl or sink of cold water for only a few seconds, just long enough to arrest the rise in temperature, then lift it out. Leaving it there sets the syrup solid in the pan.
- Holding for dippingThe pan of hot water is the period's double boiler. Keep that water at a bare simmer, around 200F, so the syrup stays fluid without cooking further; if it stiffens, warm it gently rather than adding water.
- Dipping toolsA "long pin" is probably a hatpin or similar long needle. A steel skewer, dipping fork or two-tined cocktail fork works as well, and a light coat of neutral oil on the tool keeps the nut from sticking to it.
- Paper and weatherOiled paper means paper brushed with a flavorless oil; parchment or a silicone mat needs no oiling. Work on a dry day, since hard sugar draws moisture from humid air and goes sticky within hours.
- YieldTwo cups of sugar makes more syrup than a small household batch of nuts will use up. Syrup that has been held hot and dipped into is hard to reuse, so plan the nut quantity generously.