Make Your Own Edible Glass

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." -Galileo Galilei

Edible glass is not only fun to make and delicious, but it is also used in several movies as props. if you have seen glass or bottles being broken, then it is most likely made of edible sugar. Enjoy making this sugary sweet with the help of an adult.

Ingredients/Tools:

- Bowl

- Pot or deep skillet

- Wooden or Silicone spoon

- sheet pan

-kitchen spray or a silicone mat

- candy thermometer(optional but recommended)

- 2 cups white granulated sugar

- 1 cup of corn syrup

- 1/2 to 1 cup water

- punch of cream of tartar(optional)

- food coloring of your choice(optional)

Directions:

1. Spray a sheet pan lightly with cooking spray or place a silicone mat over it.

2. Add the water, sugar, corn syrup, and cream of tartar into your pot and add the pot to the stovetop,

3. Set the heat to medium- low and gently heat the mixture up. Stir until the sugar mixture starts to boil.

4. Let the sugar syrup reach 290 to 300 F (hard crack stage) or when it starts to turn yellow. Another way to check if the syrup is ready is to drop a spoonful of the mixture into ice-cold water. It will harden up instantly and then check how brittle the solid is. If the solid sugar syrup breaks easily, the mixture is ready to go.

5. You can add in food coloring at this stage and gently mix it in.

6. Pour the hot sugar syrup into the sheet pan that was prepared early. Make sure to work with the shape quickly because the syrup thicken and hardens very quickly.

7. Allow the syrup to cool for 1-2 hours. Feel free to smash the it when it is completely cool. Have fun eating it or playing with it.

Here is a tutorial for making sugar glass. You can watch from the beginning to about 4 minutes. After that he shows the different types of colors and glasses that he made.

The Science Behind It:

Glass is created by heating sand up to 1770 degrees Celsius. The sand melts during the heating and when it hardens, it transforms into an amorphous solid. A regular solid has its molecules arranged in an orderly fashion. An amorphous solid is where the molecules are arranged in a disorganized structure similar to a liquid.This allows those types of solids to be brittle. We did the same thing by using sugar instead of glass. When we heated up sugar, melted it, and let it harden on the sheet pan, we transformed sugar into an amorphous solid. When molten sugar turns into an amorphous solid, it has a glassy and translucent appearance.