Humidity interferes with candy setting because hard candies require heating sugar to a precise temperature and rapid cooling to form a glassy finish and firm snap. Wet or muggy conditions cause candy to absorb moisture, slow cooling, and promote sugar crystallization, producing grainy or soft, chewy results instead of crisp candy. To avoid these issues, make brittle and lollipops on cool, dry days and check the weather before starting. Fall and winter offer more reliable conditions. For beginners, choose confections like caramels that include glucose or corn syrup to slow crystallization and yield a softer texture.
Candy making may sound like an awesome rainy day activity to keep the family entertained indoors, but wet weather is the enemy of sugar-based sweets like hard candies, and even toffee and brittle. Hard candies are essentially made by heating sugar to a precise temperature and cooling it down rapidly so it can set quickly to develop a glassy finish and a firm snap.
The problem is that on a wet or muggy day when there's lots of humidity in the air, the candy will absorb this extra moisture and take more time to cool, which can cause the sugar inside to crystallize. This not only results in candy with a grainy texture, but it prevents candy from hardening up, leaving it soft and chewy rather than crisp, as intended.
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