Hard Boiled Candy

Hard boiled candies are the most common kind of sweets. The basic mixture (slurry) of this type of candy is water, sugar and corn syrup (Glucose). The high temperature cooked mixture forms an amorphous mass in which the sugar is not crystallized and contains approx. 3% moisture after cooking. Subsequent vacuumizing lowers the boiling point and the moisture can be controlled reduced to = 1%.

For a regular hard candy, the use of a coil cooker has been established over decades in the global candy industry. The cooking process with the coil cooker is continuous “first in – first out”, where the slurry is pumped either as a cold mix or pre cooked into the cooking coil. The newest generations of cooker are cost efficient steam bundle cooker and plate heat exchanger, which are working with the same “first-in-first-out” principal. These cookers advance the coil cooker with their lower steam consumption due to the greater heat surface and a compact design for a short dwell time of the sugar mass. The compact design requires less space and makes this cooker maintenance friendly.

High milk containing hard candies are produced on Thin-Film-Evaporator, also known as Microfilm Cooker, to prevent the burning of the milk protein. The slurry is pumped into the cooker between the gap of the inner surface of a steam heated cooking tube (Stator) and the outer surface of the rotating scraper tube (Rotor). The cooking time is just a few seconds due to the small gap between Stator and Rotor. The scraper prevents the burning of the sugar/milk solution. An other feature of the microfilm cooker is the applying of a continuous vacuum directly during cooking. This effect lowers the cooking temperature and a light coloured milk candy can be produced.

All cooker can be used with a batch wise or continuous discharge. The batch wise discharge requires further equipment for tempering like cooling table or kneading machines. The flavours, colours and acid can be incorporated before tempering in a mixing device. During tempering the candy mass becomes more plastic and workable for pulling/aerating, forming, cut-and-wrap and other operation.

After the continuous discharge through a draw off system (rollers/screw/pump), the active ingredients will be incorporated in a dynamic mixer (Inline Mixer) or open mixing container. Tempering can be on a conveyor with kneading and turning stations or- if space requires - on cooling drums or cooling drum/conveyor combination.

Hard candies can be aerated for a white and shiny appearance, filled with jam, powder, paste and toffee. Modern Extruder produce cost efficient uniformly striped and/or centre filled candies. Different execution of die-forming machines allows any design of candy with fillings of up to 35%.

Whether you want to make filled candies, lollipops, crunchy candies, candy bars or striped candies - ATS has the right solution for you!