This week, Roy decided he wanted to make something sweet. He loves sweet things, but he also wanted to make something which was interesting. Perhaps something which people could even make for Christmas gifts. He remembered me telling him about growing salt crystals when I was little, and thought this would be interesting, but not very tasty. Then, he wondered if you could grow sugar crystals instead. After a little research, we discovered that not only can you grow sugar crystals, you can colour and flavour them to be a tasty lollypop. So this week, Roy Creates A Lollypop Crystal.
You Will Need:
- 1 cup of water and a kettle
- 3 cups of sugar (you may or may not use it all)
- Food colouring of your choice.
- Flavourings of your choice. You can use essences or juice from citrus. Be aware though that the different flavourings will change how long it takes for your crystal to grow.
- Wooden skewers
- String
- A paper towel
- A large glass jar.
- A glass or ceramic bowl.
Method:
- First, prepare your skewer. Cut the sharp ends off and then use string to tie two skewers together, like a cross. Loop the string around the centre of the cross, where the skewers meet, and keep winding it around until the two skewers are firmly held together. Now tie the string off.
- Sit the skewer over the top of your glass so that one piece of skewer dangles into the glass itself. You want the skewer to 'hang' about 2 centimetres from the bottom of the glass. Cut the piece that is pointing up down so that it only has about about 2 centimetres above where the string ends.
- Boil your water.
- Pour the water into the glass bowl and add the sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time. You want to make a saturated solution and you will know it is saturated when you can't dissolve any more sugar in the water.
- When you can't dissolve any more sugar, add a couple of drops of food colourings and flavourings. Taste the solution to make sure you can taste the flavouring.
- Let the sugar solution cool to room temperature
- Dip the blunt end of the skewer into the saturated solution, then sprinkle it with sugar. This will give the crystal something to grow on.
- Transfer the saturated, coloured water to a glass jar, leaving behind any sugar which didn't dissolve (if you have undissolved sugar in the jar the crystals might grow on this instead of on the skewer). Keep any leftover solution in a glass jar with a lid to top up the glass if too much of the solution evaporates.
- Suspend the skewer in the jar full of coloured sugar solution and leave it to grow. You want to keep it at room temperature, and out of the sun (the sun would heat the solution and slow the crystals growth)
- Cover the glass with a paper towel to keep dust out.
- It will take a few days to a few weeks (depending on conditions) for your lollypop to grow. Let it grow as much as you like, and when you are happy with it, take it out, let it dry and then eat it!
- At the end, the glass may be full of crystals, like Roy's was. To get rid of them, without shattering the glass, fill the glass with hot water and let the sugar dissolve again.
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