Pearl Sugar. Ever heard of if? I hadn’t until my brother-in-law was raving about liege waffles. There’s actually lots of things you can do with pearl sugar though. In our quest to try liege waffles, we found it wasn’t super easy to find and the price tag was a bit steep. Good news, though. You can DIY pearl sugar. It gets better… you can DIY pearl sugar for pennies and a little patience. I don’t have a lot of patience, but I probably have even fewer pennies to put toward little sugar balls. So, are you ready for a super easy little project that will cost so little you’ll be doing a happy dance? Your taste buds will after you bake with your DIY pearl sugar!
DIY PEARL SUGAR
DIY Pearl Sugar
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: ¾ cups
Pearl sugar can be used in a variety of ways, including in desserts, breakfast foods and beverages. Learn how to make your own pearl sugar for a fraction of what you'll find it in stores.
Ingredients
- ¾ cups white sugar
- 1 Tbsp water
Instructions
- Add water and sugar to a small sauce pan.
- Turn the stove on to low heat. Start out with it set as low as possible.
- Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until small clumps of sugar form. Try not to create lots of smaller clumps, not a few big ones. If the mixture isn't clumping and is staying in loose sugar granules, add ½ teaspoon of water and keep stirring. Don't add more water though, or you'll end up with syrup instead of sugar clumps.
- Let the sugar sit on low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. You're basically drying the sugar clumps out so they don't fall apart when you move them.
- Remove from heat when the clumps are hard enough to transport without falling apart. Let the sugar cool completely! The clumps will harden as they cool off. Don't use them before they are completely cooled or you'll end up with a runny sugar mess instead of a little hardened sugar ball.
Notes
The bonus to this method is that you can double or even triple (or probably more, but I've never done that much so I can't vouch for it) the recipe and make a whole bunch at one time. It's a little time consuming, as you need to watch the sugar so it doesn't caramelize, but you can make a lot and then save it for later.
This takes a little bit of time, but I will give you a recipe tomorrow that is so completely worth it. Cross my heart and pinky promise. It will change your life. Hint: You can eat this recipe with bacon… and everything is better with bacon.
