What did I do wrong?!

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jasonr

Senior Cook
Joined
Apr 8, 2004
Messages
375
I made some chocolate mousse for a cake today, which I had made successfully in the past. However, this time, I experienced a totally unexpected problem. The recipe tells you to boil about 1/2 cup sugar with three TBSP of water to 257 degrees F, and then to whisk it into an egg/egg yolk mixture. However, every time I did this, the syrup turned almost instantaneously into hard rock! Soem of the syrup seemed to get integrated properly into the egg, but there were these big rocks. I did it over three times, even using a different thermometer, and all three times created the same big hard rock in the egg mixture. I cannot figure out what went wrong. I measured exactly. What could be the cause?
 
Whenever I do this, the eggs are always warm. Were your eggs warm too, or were they still cold? If the eggs were just out of the fridge, that's your problem. The eggs have to at least be at room temperature and the sugar syrup has to be straight off the heat without time for it to cool off.

The sugar needs to be streamed in and if you don't have a stand mixer, you need to be very diligent with the whisk. You cannot let it stand for a second while you're streaming the syrup in.

The best way to do it is to use a stand mixer and to run the mixer while you're streaming in the syrup. Don't dump the syrup in. You want to pour it in a thin stream while constantly mixing.
 
Hmmmm.... You know, that could be it. I didn't really give the eggs much time to get to room temperature the firsty time, and the second and third times, they were right out of the fridge. I will definitely keep your advice in mind for next time. Thanks!
 

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