Cooking Isomalt from Scratch vs. Using Pre-Tempered

There are two main ways that you can start working with isomalt. You can start working from the raw isomalt and temper it yourself, or you can get pre-tempered isomalt and get it already cooked down. I'm Sidney Galpern and today I'm gonna show you all the differences between working with raw isomalt versus pre-tempered. Let's start out by talking about raw isomalt. So raw isomalt is generally going to be known as a powder or a crystal. That's what I have down here. So you can see that it is in kind of like a crystallized granular form. If you get isomalt in this form, it does need to be cooked down or tempered. The tempering process is similar to how you would temper chocolate, how it has to go through very specific temperatures and a process in order for it to work for you. So if you were to just take isomalt crystals and not temper them. So if you were to just put those in the microwave over the stove, melt it down until it's melted and then use it as is, what's gonna happen is it's not stabilized. Any sort of moisture in the air or around it is going to absorb really easily. It's going to melt. It's going to break down. Things can fall over. So if it doesn't get to that hard-crack stage, it's not gonna have the strength that it needs to hold up, and that is gonna be very problematic, especially when you get into making bigger pieces, like cake toppers and displays that you wanna hold up really nicely. So the tempering process is really, really important to working with isomalt if you are starting from a raw form. So if we were to take this raw isomalt, we can temper it by cooking it to a very specific process. So my process is going to be melting it down over the stove. I do have a recipe that I follow, and that is just going to ensure that I get to the proper temperatures in order for it to work properly. Now, with the temperatures, you do wanna make sure that you get it to the exact temperature that is specified for your isomalt. So just like chocolate, every isomalt, depending on where you get it from, is going to be a little bit different. So you wanna make sure, to that brand of isomalt that you are using, that you are cooking it to the proper temperatures because if you go a little bit over or a little bit under, even by just a couple of degrees, it can affect the isomalt a lot. So basically, with the temperature changes, the higher temperature that you bring isomalt to, the faster it's going to dry, which means if you bring the isomalt up even a few degrees too high, it's going to harden very quickly on you, and, of course, it can start yellowing and eventually burn if you get it way too hot. Now, on the opposite side of that, the lower temperature that you bring it to, the more stretchy and the softer it can be. So it is important not to go too low of a temperature. Otherwise, the isomalt isn't going to set up properly for you. So it's really important to look up the exact specifications of your isomalt in order for you to temper it properly. Some things you may notice if you are researching and finding your own recipes for isomalt is gonna be differences in ingredients. So what I prefer is to have isomalt and just some distilled water in my recipe, but you may notice that other recipes call for things like corn syrup or glycerin products. I personally don't prefer that because I find that it makes the isomalt way too stretchy, and it's also going to make it very susceptible to humidity and moisture in the air. So for me personally, I like to just use isomalt with a little bit of distilled water. Now, you do wanna make sure that this water is distilled or at least bottled and purified because tap water can have impurities in it that can affect the isomalt. At this stage of tempering, isomalt is definitely gonna be susceptible to yellowing or to be thrown off very easily from impurities. So making sure that you're working with smooth surfaces like stainless steel, rather than wood, or non-stick pots and pans, is definitely going to help at this step as well. Once you go through the tempering process and you cook down the isomalt, you'll have your recognizable, sugar-free hard-candy. So this is when it'll be in that beautiful glass form. It'll look just like hard-candies that you can get at the store. So with isomalt, basically, once it is pre-cooked, it's done. You don't have to temper it again. You don't have to go through that whole process. It is ready, which is really nice compared to tempering chocolate, where you have to re-temper it anytime you melt it. So once it is all tempered, it's ready to use. So I have some pre-tempered isomalt here. So you can see the difference. I have my beautiful hard-candy form. looks just like glass, and at this point, all you have to do is melt it down. So whether you were tempering it yourself, you brought it to this form, and you had left over, or you're ready to use it, or you can also get it pre-tempered. So if you don't wanna go through the whole work of tempering it and going through that whole process, you can also purchase the ice melt already tempered, so that all of that guess work is gone for you. So at this form, this is what I have right here is pre-tempered tiles. At this form, all you have to do is melt it. So you can use the stove if you want to, but I usually just use the microwave. It makes it really easy. So just pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds and then 15 second intervals until it is liquid. I don't go by temperatures or tech or anything like that. I only go by textures at this point. So once it comes to a boil, it's ready to use.