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How do you remove stickiness from candy?


Candy is delicious, but it can also be incredibly sticky. Sticky candy gets all over your hands, sticks to teeth, and can be a hassle to clean up. While stickiness is part of what makes candy like taffy, caramel, and gummies so tasty, sometimes you want to enjoy your candy without having to deal with the mess afterwards. Luckily, there are a few simple tricks to remove stickiness from candy.

What causes candy to be sticky?

The stickiness of most candies is caused by sugar. When heat is applied to sugar, some of the sugar molecules break down into simpler sugars that are more fluid and sticky. Candy makers intentionally allow this transformation to happen to various extents in order to achieve the ideal texture for each type of candy.

For example, taffy and caramel candies are cooked to very high temperatures so that the sugar becomes an extremely sticky, viscous fluid. It then sets into a chewy, sticky candy as it cools. Gummies and jelly candies also rely on the stickiness of sugars for their texture, but they contain added gelatin, pectin, or starch to set the candies into a rubbery gel with less stringiness than taffy or caramel. Hard candies like lollipops are cooked to lower temperatures so that less of the sugar breaks down and the candy sets up into a glassy amorphous solid.

Tips for Removing Stickiness from Candy

The good news is that even though candy contains sticky sugar, there are ways to remove or prevent some of that stickiness:

Coat Hands and Tools with Cooking Spray

Spraying cooking oil, like canola or olive oil, onto your hands, utensils, and prep surface before working with sticky candy can prevent it from glomming on in the first place. The oil acts as a barrier between your skin and the candy.

Use Butter or Shortening

Rubbing a little butter, shortening, or other oil-based product onto your fingers can also create a temporary non-stick barrier. The candy will stick to the buttery coating instead of your skin.

Run Under Cold Water

After handling sticky candy, simply rinsing your hands with cold water and rubbing them together vigorously can help wash away and dilute some of the surface stickiness. This won’t remove deeper set-in stickiness but can help remove excess.

Use Salt or Cornstarch

Sprinkling hands with salt or cornstarch, rubbing to fully coat hands, and then rinsing can be even more effective than plain water. The grains of salt or cornstarch help scrub off sticky residues. The same trick can also be used to remove stickiness from countertops. Just sprinkle on generously, allow to sit briefly, then wipe away.

Freeze and Chip Away

Freezing excessively sticky candies like caramel until solid and then chipping off the excess can remove stuck-on bits from candy molds, hands, and utensils. The candy becomes much less sticky when frozen. Allowing it to re-warm to room temperature will restore stickiness.

Use Paper Towels

Vigorously rubbing hands with dry paper towels can help lift off sticky residues through friction and absorption into the towels.

Clean With Vinegar

For hard candy stuck on dishes, countertops, and cooking equipment, soak in undiluted vinegar for several minutes to fully dissolve away stickiness. If needed, gently scrape with a spatula or scrub with a brush. Rinse thoroughly afterwards. Vinegar can also be used to clean sticky hands in a pinch.

Method What it Does
Coat with cooking spray Creates a temporary non-stick barrier
Use butter, shortening, or oil Coats hands with a non-stick film
Rinse with cold water Washes away excess stickiness
Coat with salt or cornstarch Scrubs off sticky residue
Freeze and chip away Removes stuck-on bits
Rub with paper towels Absorbs and lifts off stickiness
Soak in vinegar Dissolves away sticky sugars

Preventing Candy Stickiness

In addition to removing stickiness after the fact, there are also some tips for preventing candy stickiness in the first place:

Use Non-Stick Coatings and Molds

Coating candy molds and utensils with non-stick baking spray can allow even sticky candies to be more easily removed after cooling. Silicone molds are also naturally non-stick.

Add Cornstarch to Candy Mix

Lightly dusting gummy and jelly candy mixtures with a little cornstarch before pouring into molds can result in less sticky candies. The cornstarch absorbs excess moisture that makes candy gummy. Too much cornstarch can make gummies dry rather than soft and chewy though.

Cook Candy to Higher Temperatures

Hard crack and butterscotch candies cooked to 300-320°F are generally less sticky than soft crack candies cooked to 270-290°F. Cooking candy mixtures to higher final temperatures results in less breakdown of sugars into sticky syrups.

Limit Ingredient Contact with Moisture

Keeping candy work surfaces and hands dry and limiting contact between candy and wet ingredients or steam condensation can also minimize tackiness. Clean up spills immediately. Letting moisture sink into the candy increases stickiness.

Add Non-Sticky Binders

Incorporating crisp rice cereal, nuts, chocolate chips, and other dry or oil-based mix-ins to candy batter can help reduce overall stickiness in the final product. The dry ingredients absorb moisture and dilute the sticky sugars.

Coat in Sugar or Cocoa Powder

Rolling shaped candy pieces in dry sugar, sanding sugar, or unsweetened cocoa powder creates a non-sticky coating to protect from fingerprints and sticking together. Let candies fully dry before coating.

Method How it Prevents Stickiness
Use non-stick molds Candy won’t stick to molds
Add cornstarch Absorbs excess moisture
Cook to higher temperatures Less sugar breakdown into syrups
Limit moisture contact Reduces syrup formation on surface
Add dry binders Absorbs moisture
Coat in sugar/cocoa Non-sticky protective layer

Removing Stickiness from Specific Candy Types

Certain tricks are better suited for removing stickiness from specific candy types:

Taffy and Caramel

– Coat hands and tools generously with cooking spray or butter before pulling or cutting sticky taffy or caramel. The coating prevents it from sticking.

– Chill taffy and caramel thoroughly to firm it up before working with it. The firmer chilled candy is less sticky. Soft caramel candies may need to be frozen fully solid.

– Scrub hands with salt, cornstarch, or dry paper towels after working with taffy or caramel to lift off residues.

– Soak stuck-on taffy or caramel residues in undiluted vinegar for 5-10 minutes to dissolve, then rinse away.

Fruit Chews and Gummies

– Dust hands, tools, and work surface lightly with cornstarch when working with gummy candy. The cornstarch absorbs excess moisture and tackiness.

– Rub hands with butter or shortening to prevent gummy candy from clinging while you work. Wipe off any buttery residues before packaging candies.

– Rinsing hands, tools, and dishes under cold running water can wash away gummy residues. Change water frequently.

– Freeze excessively sticky gummies until solid, then quickly rinse away stickiness under cold water before they re-warm and soften.

Marshmallows

– Generously coat hands and tools with cooking spray or shortening before handling sticky marshmallows. The coating prevents sticking.

– Rinsing sticky marshmallow hands with cold water while scrubbing vigorously can help wash away surface stickiness.

– Rubbing hands with dry paper towels can lift off sticky marshmallow residue.

– Use vinegar solution to soak off hardened marshmallow bits.

Fondant and Molding Chocolate

– Knead a little shortening into fondant or molding chocolate to make them smoother and less sticky against hands and tools. Start with just a teaspoon per pound.

– Dust fondant and chocolate lightly with cornstarch on the surface and hands to allow easier handling.

– If fondant or chocolate become overly warm and sticky, refrigerate briefly to firm them up for easier handling. Avoid over-chilling.

– Rub hands with paper towels to remove fondant and chocolate stickiness. Rinse with cool water.

Hard Candy

– Allow hard candies to fully cool and set after molding before handling. Newly molded hot candies will be sticky.

– Soak stuck-on hard candy residues in undiluted vinegar for 5-10 minutes to dissolve sugar. Gently scrape off dissolved candy bits.

– Coat candy molds and tools generously with non-stick baking spray for easy removal of molded hard candies.

– Rub hands with salt or cornstarch to scrub off sticky hard candy residues after handling, then rinse clean.

Conclusion

While stickiness is part of what makes many candies so delicious, it can also make working with candy a sticky mess. Thankfully, there are many simple solutions for removing or preventing stickiness when enjoying candymaking. A little cooking spray, butter, cornstarch, vinegar and elbow grease can go a long way towards letting you enjoy candy without having it stick all over creation. Armed with these tips, you can now make all kinds of delicious sticky confections while keeping your hands, tools, and kitchen nice and clean.