# sugar problem with butter tarts



## doodle (Aug 30, 2008)

I have been making butter tarts for over 40 years, but only mixing two dozen at a time for our own enjoyment. Never have I not had my sugar dissolve - ie. go "grainy" on me after they have been cooked and cooled.
Now I have to tell you, my SIL is making these for us at our brand new gluten-free baking shop so I have not seen every thing he has done that may have caused this to happen.
Here is what I do know. 
The shells, which we make ourselves, are much shallower than my home muffin tins I have always used.= Wider, shallower baking surface. 
I think perhaps he was whipping the egg into the mixture too long which I think caused the excess foam on the top so I asked him to mix, not beat in the egg next time. ?right?
The sugar not only was "grainy" but formed a thin solid bottom on the tart shell. We are using our own gluten-free pastry which we mix and roll/press ourselves into the tart shells, but I can't see how the pastry componnets would matter? We "press" our pastry balls into the shell with a great gadget we have but we don't make them rock solid.
The brown sugar was purchased from a bakery supplier and on closer examination, it appears courser/grainier than the regular grocery store sugar I have always used. I didn't realize there would be much of a difference and thought it would all "melt" anyway we are not talking a big difference in the size of the grains but it is noticeable once you take the time to compare.
The ingredients are as follows:
butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, (a bit of -vinegar to tone down the sweetness, cream to add to the richness & corn syrup to maintain the viscosity) and of course, raisins which have been washed and slightly pumped with the water they soak in but patted dry. 
What the heck do you think is going wrong? Oh, BTW, I have a great deal of this brown sugar. If you think that may be the probem, do you have any suggestions as to what do do - other than trying to "grind" it finer myself?
thanks so much for any advice, Doodle


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## dillbert (Jul 2, 2008)

one possibility is the sugar is not getting dissolved in an aqueous liquid - it's in a supersaturated solution of (?)egg(?) and then falling out of solution.

what is the assembly of ingredients sequence/routine?


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## doodle (Aug 30, 2008)

thanks Dillbert - Great question & I had wondered if the order would make a difference. I do know he has not had a great deal of experience in the world of baking pastries from scratch but has mastered many of the other gluten-free items for our purposes.
but-
I do not know his blending method. I haven't seen him prepare the filling but I will ask him and get back to you on that. 
thanks, doodle


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

You might try blenderizing the sugar first to make it like caster sugar. But I don't know how well that would work with brown sugar. There is such a thing as granulated brown sugar -- that could probably be blenderized very fine.


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## gunnar (Apr 3, 2008)

the only thing i can think of is to really blend that butter and sugar together first over a double boiler. once it's well incorporated then i would add egg (probably let the butter and sugar cool a bit) and blend. As with all baking the chemistry can be changed by the smallest things, best of luck.


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## Blanche (Jan 26, 2019)

doodle said:


> I have been making butter tarts for over 40 years, but only mixing two dozen at a time for our own enjoyment. Never have I not had my sugar dissolve - ie. go "grainy" on me after they have been cooked and cooled.
> Now I have to tell you, my SIL is making these for us at our brand new gluten-free baking shop so I have not seen every thing he has done that may have caused this to happen.
> Here is what I do know.
> The shells, which we make ourselves, are much shallower than my home muffin tins I have always used.= Wider, shallower baking surface.
> ...


.i have had the problem and this is what I discovered:
One year I used red path brown or (yellow) and I found out that it is a blended sugar ...they blend a molasses type syrup into white...Rodgers golden yellow is produced in a drum. Spun and crystallized...now to pursue this further...white sugar when heated to the temp that you cook tarts at will crystallize....brown sugar will not...if your getting sugar crystals in your butter tarts, it means that there is a lot of white sugar in that particular brown sugar...I had problems this year with Rodgers...wrote them and they said their plant was down, they had to outsource to meet demand so yes there was likely white sugar....tarts are baked hot...thus the crystals in white sugar..Becareful what sugar you use...it's not you it's the sugar


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## Blanche (Jan 26, 2019)

As I posted further back:
A few years ago when I bought redpath br sugar...I had crystals in all my butter tarts...I discovered that some brown sugar is made by adding a molasses type syrup to the white sugar..so you have coloured white sugar...Rodgers golden yellow is made by heating the sugar in a drum to crystallize..thus two different types of process...I cook my butter tarts at 425 for 15 min..when white sugar is cooked at that heat, sugar crystals form...this year I had crystals again and contacted Rodgers to find out why....well it seems they had problems with their plant and had to outsource to meet their demands....so having said that, the sugar they filled their quota with was produced differently, so indeed was white sugar...so the sugar that caused the crystals was white sugar...my granddaughter was making toffee, found it grainy..yes she needed brown sugar, but unknown to her it had two much white sugar......white sugar always crystallizes When heated at high temp...beware..not all brown sugar is created equal...took a disaster with 12 dozen tarts to learn that...I make fudge...use brown sugar and cream, most fudge stores make with white sugar and evaporated milk...to me it's always grainy
Blanche


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## Transglutaminase (Jan 9, 2019)

I agree that Rogers is cheaping out..
They used to have "Demerara" sugar, but now call it "_Demerara_ _style_" brown sugar..ie: molasses coated white sugar.
I still use it, but disappointed.
Often use coarse cane sugar from East Indian grocers..they also sell "brown cane sugar", but even then, the "brown" coating washes off rather quickly.. to expose the white sugar.
Cane sugar is kinda nice though..depending on the recipe, and it does take a long time to dissolve, due to the large crystals.
They often carry _huge crystal_ bagged cane sugar ..might be good for Belgian waffles (haven't tried that yet)
Do not buy the large cheap blocks/bags of "Gur" {jaggery},.. unless using it for alcohol/distillation..the large blocks contain rocks, burlap & WHY! (really!)


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

guys, back to basics. wet to dry.- dry to wet.- In 50 years, I have not found an inferior product that doesn't fit the method and procedure.


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