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| Photo Credit: Anthony and Shannon |
It was quite hard making the dalgona (literally). It took us a two whole hours (and that was with help from friends) to finally create an edible product. Making these seemed a lot harder than it looked; the videos I’ve watched on vendors expertly crafting the cookies made it look super easy! However, it was definitely the opposite of easy; tedious and difficult was more like it. When we tried to melt the sugar over the burner, we were curious as to why the sugar wasn’t caramelizing or showing any reaction after stirring it around for ten minutes. Then there was a growing smoky/burning scent, and we realized that the ladle was melting instead of the sugar! Seeing this, we immediately turned off the flame and dumped the sugar out of the ladle (which claimed to be heatproof to up to 400 degrees, although I guess that didn’t include directly placing it on fire).
Our friends and I decided that it would be best to melt the sugar in a pot instead. The sugar started caramelizing quickly- too quickly. By the time we turned off the stove top and added in the baking soda, the caramel was already a little burnt, but we still used it. Another problem arose when we poured the sticky mess onto the sugared parchment paper. Due to using an uneven surface (plate) the granulated sugar crystals that we had sprinkled onto the paper had pooled in the crevasses. As a result of this, the candy stuck to certain parts of the paper, and it was difficult to mix. Thin and sticky strands of the hardened sugar also caused a bit of a mess. We cooled it down in the form of a sloppy ball (from us attempting to fold it multiple times to cool it down like we’ve seen in the videos) and washed the pot by adding some and boiling some water. This way, the sugar that has now gone hard can melt again in the water. After about ten minutes of dissolving the sugar, the pot was finally clean, and we attempted to create a second batch. We tried to melt the sugar this time, but I guess we stirred it unevenly because about ¾ of the sugar was completely caramelized and ready for the baking soda, while ¼ of the sugar was in little clumps. We tried to fix it, but after a good ten minutes of constant stirring and placing it on and off the burner, we just added the baking soda. However, the product turned out fine, and with the adjustments from our past mistakes we were able to mold the candy on the even surface and flatten them into cookies (which was challenging as it rapidly cooled and hardened). Success! We had made three cookies, and they looked really good! After observing them, we saw that the cookies were really thick, and planned to make our next dalgona a lot thinner (which would make it crispier as well). Excited, we quickly cleaned the pot once again and created another batch. This time, we accidentally added too much sugar onto the parchment paper and it mixed too much. It resulted in the cookies looking awkwardly shaped and not like the dalgona made previously, but the taste was the same. Instead of three cookies, we made four, but they were still super thick.
After taking a few photos, we had our friends tried some of them. They said that it tasted alright, but the dalgona was way too hard even though it was a type of hard candy. They also thought it was too thick, which meant we should of rolled it more onto the surface, but it was difficult to not make it stick to the parchment paper. They also thought it was too sweet meaning we probably used too much sugar. When we tasted it ourselves, we also thought the dalgona was too sweet and that it tasted a little burnt. Since we were using a pot, it was difficult to control the time with the sugar rapidly caramelizing. Even though the final product did not turn out the way we wanted it to, we were glad that a product was successfully created. Unlike our previous weeks where our attempts were in vain, we were actually able to create dalgona by not giving up early.
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| Photo Credit: Zhou |
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| Photo Credit: Zhou |
Our friends and I decided that it would be best to melt the sugar in a pot instead. The sugar started caramelizing quickly- too quickly. By the time we turned off the stove top and added in the baking soda, the caramel was already a little burnt, but we still used it. Another problem arose when we poured the sticky mess onto the sugared parchment paper. Due to using an uneven surface (plate) the granulated sugar crystals that we had sprinkled onto the paper had pooled in the crevasses. As a result of this, the candy stuck to certain parts of the paper, and it was difficult to mix. Thin and sticky strands of the hardened sugar also caused a bit of a mess. We cooled it down in the form of a sloppy ball (from us attempting to fold it multiple times to cool it down like we’ve seen in the videos) and washed the pot by adding some and boiling some water. This way, the sugar that has now gone hard can melt again in the water. After about ten minutes of dissolving the sugar, the pot was finally clean, and we attempted to create a second batch. We tried to melt the sugar this time, but I guess we stirred it unevenly because about ¾ of the sugar was completely caramelized and ready for the baking soda, while ¼ of the sugar was in little clumps. We tried to fix it, but after a good ten minutes of constant stirring and placing it on and off the burner, we just added the baking soda. However, the product turned out fine, and with the adjustments from our past mistakes we were able to mold the candy on the even surface and flatten them into cookies (which was challenging as it rapidly cooled and hardened). Success! We had made three cookies, and they looked really good! After observing them, we saw that the cookies were really thick, and planned to make our next dalgona a lot thinner (which would make it crispier as well). Excited, we quickly cleaned the pot once again and created another batch. This time, we accidentally added too much sugar onto the parchment paper and it mixed too much. It resulted in the cookies looking awkwardly shaped and not like the dalgona made previously, but the taste was the same. Instead of three cookies, we made four, but they were still super thick.
 |
| Photo Credit: Anthony |
 |
| Photo Credit: Anthony and Shannon |
After taking a few photos, we had our friends tried some of them. They said that it tasted alright, but the dalgona was way too hard even though it was a type of hard candy. They also thought it was too thick, which meant we should of rolled it more onto the surface, but it was difficult to not make it stick to the parchment paper. They also thought it was too sweet meaning we probably used too much sugar. When we tasted it ourselves, we also thought the dalgona was too sweet and that it tasted a little burnt. Since we were using a pot, it was difficult to control the time with the sugar rapidly caramelizing. Even though the final product did not turn out the way we wanted it to, we were glad that a product was successfully created. Unlike our previous weeks where our attempts were in vain, we were actually able to create dalgona by not giving up early.
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| Photo Credit: Shannon |
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