On Food and Cooking

practically no water left. Any residual water
can cause crystallization and milkiness by
making it easier for the sucrose molecules to
move around and nest together. At somewhat
higher temperatures, the sugar begins to
caramelize and turn yellow-brown, which is
undesirable for much sugar work but
encouraged for spun sugar and sugar cages,
which are made by drizzling the hot syrup in
threads over a solid form or a wooden rack,
where they harden almost instantly. For more
elaborate sugar work, the entire sugar mass is
cooled to around 130–120ºF/55–50ºC, a range
in which it has a pliable, doughy consistency.
Now it can be handled and formed, blown like
glass into hollow spheres and other shapes,
and kept workable with a heat lamp. Though
pastry chefs with seasoned fingertips can
sculpt sugar barehanded, many use thin latex
gloves in order to avoid transferring moisture
and skin oils from their fingers.
One of the more striking forms of sugar