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Learn how to make easy homemade golden syrup. Sugar is slowly cooked and reduced/inverted into dark golden/amber color. Golden syrup is commonly used in confectionaries, cookies, pastries, etc.
WHAT IS GOLDEN SYRUP (INVERT SYRUP)?
It is called inverted syrup because of the inversion of the rotation of plane-polarized light in the sugar (my head hurts just trying to think about what that means!). As fancy as it sounds, golden syrup or inverted sugar syrup is made of regular table sugar (sucrose), water, and acid (lemon in this recipe). The mixture is cooked slowly over low heat until it changes color and most water evaporates leaving you with an amber-color syrup with a consistency of honey-like as it cools down.
WHY DO I NEED ACID IN MAKING INVERT SUGAR SYRUP?
Table sugar is made of sucrose, a combination of fructose and glucose. When heats to the ideal temperature of 236°F (114°C), the acid helps so accelerates the conversion of sucrose into fructose and glucose without leaving much of the tartness
WHAT IS GOLDEN SYRUP USED FOR?
Golden syrup is used extensively in commercial baking, confectionaries, mooncakes, ice cream making as sweeteners and at the same time, it extends shelf life, retains moisture much better, improves the quality (smoother texture), and minimizes crystallization in sweets.
WHAT IS THE PERFECT CONSISTENCY FOR GOLDEN SYRUP?
The consistency is quite runny and watery when it’s still warm on the day you just finished making it (as you can see in the photo and the video), but after a few days, it continues to thicken. So don’t cook it until it’s so thick and when it cools down it will be too thick.
IMPORTANT TIPS
1. Use a heavy-bottom saucepan. If you use thin material, the sugar will get burned easily. Avoid aluminum and iron materials
2. Once you have brought it to a boil and lower the heat, don’t stir the sugar anymore and let it gently cook over low heat
3. We want the consistency of runnier than honey when you finish cooking because it will thicken further as it cools down
4. If you cook for too long and the texture is too thick, you can thin it down by adding a bit more water and cook it again to the consistency runnier than honey
5. If it’s too runny, you can cook it a bit longer. If it’s too thick, you can add a bit of water to thin it out
6. You can wait for 2-3 days before using the syrup, but if you can wait for 2 weeks, the flavor gets better and the consistency is rich and thick but still pourable
Easy Homemade Golden Syrup For Mooncakes (Inverted Sugar Syrup)
Ingredients
- 800 gr granulated white sugar 4 cups, or use caster sugar/fine sugar
- 600 ml water 2 1/2 cups
- 4 slices fresh lemon
Instructions
- Cut the lemon into 4 thin slices. Place the sugar, water, and fresh lemon slices in a medium saucepan, preferably stainless steel or ceramic as they conduct heat more evenly but not too fast that it burns the sugar. Avoid aluminum and iron material
- Cook until sugar dissolves on medium heat. Lower the heat to really low to simmer gently for the next 1 hour 30 minutes without stirring it. The sugary water will gradually change color to amber, almost like the color of honey. If you have a candy thermometer (I don't), you can make sure the temperature is between 110-115 C (230 F – 239 F)
- Test for consistency: drop some of the syrup in a bowl of water. Use your finger to stir the syrup and if it melts or sort of dissolves, it's done cooking. If you can form a soft ball with it, you have gone a bit too far. Just add a bit more water to the syrup in the pan to "thin" it a bit and test again. The consistency would be close to a runny honey. You don't want to cook it as thick as honey because it will thicken further as it cools down
- Transfer to a glass jar and let it cools down completely before sealing the lid. The syrup can be stored at room temperature for up to at least one year or beyond
- Let the golden syrup "matures" for 2 weeks before using. The flavor gets better the longer it sits and consistency will be thicker
- Simply soak the pot you use to cook the syrup in warm water for 10-15 minutes and the sticky sugar will dissolves and easy to be washed after that
24 comments
Hi! I just want to ask if you’re supposed to stir and mix the sugar together before bringing it to a boil, or should I not stir at all? Thanks!
Hi Hannah, there’s no need to stir it. You can place it on the stove straight away. Hope this helps
I’m having issues replying to your comment so I’ll just make a new one. I’d like to point out somethings I had failed to point out earlier: I had quartered the recipe and not only was my syrup darker than usual, it was burnt! B-U-R-N-T. And when I tried spooning it, it would solidify into these hard candy-like strings and at that point I threw the wholething out. But then I redid the recipe using a more heavier base saucepan. It was a success! And yes, the 45-minutes still work for smaller quantities like you said. I just assumed that the reason for the mishap was the extended cooking time but now I think the thickness of the base was the issue. And to answer your I had lowered the knob as low as it could go (I used a gas stovetop).
I used the remade syrup in some ginger biscuits and it’s getting my vote!
I’m glad to hear that it turned out in the end. Sorry you had to go through trouble but I could learn a lesson from here too. Thank you for sharing and for taking time to reply back 🙂
I’m trying this but it refuses to change colour.
How long did you simmer it for ?
On another note, just realised the mistake I might have made: used a saucepan with too thin of a base.
Sorry to hear of the trouble. Did you simmer it at really low heat? Even if you half the recipe, the cooking time should remain the same, just have to really make sure you simmer at really low heat so it don’t get burn easily.
I’d like to poinr out that if you decide to reduce the recipe quantities like I did then the 45 minutes aren’t necessary—in fact it might even be disastrous! My golden syrup at about 30 minutes had turned a deep black. Guess I’ll have to redo it!