Post #333123 by The Gnomon on Tue, Sep 18, 2007 8:23 AM

On 2007-09-17 15:20, Kona Chris wrote:
Would it be possible to get the rock candy to grow over the fruit garnish? THAT would be pretty spiffy!

I think if you let it grow in the fridge, it might just work, and certainly would be cool looking, depending on how long you let it grow.

Chris

It would be cool looking, but I don't think you'd have any success as long as you use fresh fruit for your garnish. You might have some luck with dried fruit, especially, if the fruit already has some crystallization on its surface. But I don't find the idea of using dried fruit very attractive.

Acidity and rock candy do not mix. Candy makers use acidic ingredients to soften their candy. The hard crystals are inhibited from forming in the presence of acid. Pineapple is acidic, for example, so as a fresh fruit I would expect it to get nowhere as far as acting as a seed base for sugar crystals is concerned.

On the other hand, the sugar in pineapple can crystallize on its surface when it is dried sufficently to have evaporated enough of its acidic juice. Of course, when it's dry it's kinda hard, but you can still force a skewer through it if it's not too hard. Then the sugar crystals on the pineapple surface would probably be able to seed rock candy crystals if the syrup was very unstable.

Would this make a decent garnish? I don't think so, which is why I've never tried it. There are lots of dried fruits around and I'd thought about how they'd fare as garnishes, but I always concluded that they'd generally be unappealing. You might find otherwise. Let me know if you try it.