Reverse engineering a "glass shard" !

[sean907]

I attended culinary school in Florence, Italy and for a catered dinner we made a multiple course menu. One of the items was a cake with a sugar "glass shard" garnish. As I was working a saute pan I did not have a hand in making the dessert. I have tried to reverse engineer the glass shard but have not had success yet. I do know it was baked on a silpat but that is about it. Please help!

[sean907]

Thank you both for the replies- I have a good idea of how to start now.

[cowboyardee]

Was the sugar glass garnish flavored (beyond being sugary) or colored at all?

Generally speaking, the process is that you boil a kind of sugar (a mixture of glucose and fondant sugar are often used; also isomalt is very popular because it doesn't crystalize easily) until it's about 300 degrees or sometimes a bit hotter. The boiled sugar is then poured on silpat to cool. Once cool, it is ground to a powder. And then it is sifted onto a silpat sheet in a very fine layer, in whatever shape you'd like. Finally, it is heated again in the oven until the sugar melts. You can mold it a bit as it sets.

[babette feasts]

I was going to say it is probably made with isomalt, but I'm not sure the grinding and sifting is really necessary. Depends on what you're looking for, I guess.

Sean, if you search for bubble sugar garnish you'll get a variety of methods.

[chefj]

What have you tried? Are you sure that it was baked?
It looks like a thin layer hard crack sugar syrup that was set on a Silpat.
You may be able to get the same result in a oven by sprinkling a Silpat with bakes sugar and melting it in the oven.

[sean907]

Mostly what I have tried is different ratios of sugar to water. I do not know if it was baked - when I came back to help garnish they were on baking trays with silpats

[chefj]

I think that the Siplat was used for its nonstickness.
When you are making a hard crack syrup the ratio of water to sugar is not important. You will be cooking all the water away.
You cook your syrup till it reaches 300° F–310° F
quickly pour onto a silpat and spread as thin as you can.(it will help if the silpat and sheet pan it is on is hot) let it cool completely.