making vodka pills in 24 hours

Recently, Chef Fabian was experimenting further with the Adria/Torreblanca technique of making 'vodka pills.'  I use this word to describe the process of making liquid-filled candies by pouring flavored alcohol syrups into cornstarch and letting it set until a hard outer shell forms.  The process is simple, but requires great attention to certain details and a clean approach.  Actually, there is more than 1 way to achieve this.  Fabian's method employs a little of each different method.

There are only 2 components to this process... the cornstarch (which serves as a casting mold and as a reactant to the liquid) and the alcohol flavored syrup (which will form a 'shell' upon contact with the cornstarch surrounding it).  How you make and treat the 2 components is what causes the magic.

The Alcohol Syrup

The percentage of alcohol in your syrup (based mainly on your choice of poison) is one of the most crucial factors.  Fabian tried it once with an icewine and it crystallized too much.  A good vodka (or equally strong alcohol) is the best choice.  Flavored vodkas are great and add to the candy appeal.

Fabian's recipe is as follows.

• 250g granulated sugar
• 84g water

Cook the syrup until it is ready at 112C.  Once the sugar is dissolved, reduce the heat and bring it down to 85C.

• 52.5g vodka

At 85C, add the vodka by pouring it slowly using the side of the pot.  Transfer the syrup by pouring it slowly into another pot.  Do this 4 times to prevent any crystallization.  Let the syrup cool.

The Corn Starch

I'm not sure if other starches will work as well of the corn starch, but you will need a lot of it so keeping with a relatively cheap product makes sense. 

 

The first step is to make a cast for the syrup.  Do this by sifting enough cornstarch to support the cast.  The one above is made inside a sheet pan cake mold.  The cornstarch must first be dried at 120C for an hour or more.  Fill the mold as high as necessary, level it off, and make the 'pill' holes.  This can be done with a dowel with the desired shape.    Fabian make the Home Depot kicked up version for hole making by screwing pre-cut dowels onto a board the length of the mold.

This expediates the process, but also allows for a more consistent final product.  Lay the holes out a couple of inches from each other.

Carefully check the holes for smoothness, then apply the syrup.  This is done easily with a squeeze bottle.  Fill each hole almost completely, allowing a little room on top to cover the syrup.

Immediately afterwards, sift cornstarch over the syrup casts to completely cover.  Anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 inch cornstarch cover is enough.

Next Step... Patience

Now you must wait!  24 hours is the key here.  Other processes may take less or more time, but one day is not bad at all.  You will need a small sifter and a soft dry brush.  Scoop out the 'pills' with a spoon and use the brush to carefully knock off any excess clinging corn starch.  That's it.  You're ready.

The 'pill' is now a thin hard layer of solidified flavored sugar filled with a liquid burst of sweetened alcohol.  Serve the same day unless you can keep it in a humidity free environment.

Comments

[Jim]

A large dual-walled container with a tub of damp-rid in the bottom (like a stove-top smoker setup)could probably get you some decent shelf life on those...

[Jim]

Hmm... any idea how these stand up to (tempered) chocolate coating?

[Chicken Fried Gourmet]

Holy crap that is cool, can you do this with wine ?

Awesome post !!!

[chadzilla]

Jim-- We've never chocolate coated these. They look clean as is, but a hint of chocolate presented well could be nice.
CFG-- Wine does not have enough alcohol for this application.

Jacob Torreblanca did a demo on these in a previous posting. He showed a video of some that were done in Spain that were very elongated, and had other liquids or broken emulsions quite visible inside. They were very cool.
http://chadzilla.typepad.com/chadzilla/2006/10/pastry_demo.html

[chadzilla]

I forgot to add one note in this process...
The Albert Adria technique requires the cornstarch mold with the syrup cast in it to be flipped one time during the duration of the setting. Obviously this must be done very carefully, and I'm not sure after how many hours (possibly half-way through to be safe).
This will make your candies to be much more uniformly shaped.

[Jim]

Any idea what the science is behind alcohol content in the recipe? Is there a threshold ABV figure that is required for the pill? Have you tried fortifying liquids with grain alcohol to reach the desired ABV?

Maybe that would work with the eiswein... add the grain neutral spirits to reach the desired ABV. If it dilutes the flavor too much, maybe reduce/concentrate it first then add in the grain so that the grain then dilutes it back to the original intensity. Would take some tweaking...

[jason]

How stable are these to humidity?

[chadzilla]

I guess if the amount of alchohol can be estimated without instruments for exact measurement... if you figure that by using 80 proof (40% alcohol) vodka, and convert to estimate how much grain alcohol it would take to get that from a 13 to 15% alcohol wine... guess it could be done, but it may also affect the sugar slightly.

And no, these do not hold up well to humidity... hold them accordingly.

[Jim]

Well, here are a couple calculators if you know the alcohol concentration needed:
http://www.brewhaus.com/Calculators_s/46.htm

Another idea (if you haven't already done it...)-- have you tried putting the pills into a siphon to try and carbonate them? If you could do that, use a syrup/rum/mint filling for the pill, then carbonate it for a mojito pop. Other carbonated combos could follow...

[chris]

thanks for the post

[Jason]

Thanks for the weekend project. I'm going to experiment with other liquors. Tequila pills sound delicious.

[Joshua]

I have a very severe allergy to corn, so these are a way bad idea for me. On the other hand, I REALLY want to try this! Can someone give me some suggestions on other types are starches that are out there that I could try? That would be awesome, and I'm more than willing to experiment haha.

[Seth]

Someone said chocolate, and I started thinking of substituting Rumplemintz for the vodka, and dark chocolate coating the candies. I might give that a shot. Hmm, a pun!

[Thomas]

Sounds like a weekend project for some bored college kids ... Though how sold are they in terms of fragility, and are there any suggestions regarding some sort of edible clearcoat we could use to prolong their lifespan?

[Mikel]

So it sounds like the only things these need are a hard candy coating (much like a jelly bean) and they would hold up much better to humidity.

Would it be possible to use a sugar coating of some sort, and tumble these in a rock tumbler, much like jelly beans are made? It seems like you could vastly extend the shelf life of these bad boys that way.

[Russell]

Joshua, Look for a japanese food store and find "katakuriko" which is a potato starch. I haven't tried it with this, but it has a similiar consistancy and feel to corn starch (if I remember right) so it should work.

[Luke]

How many of these will make you drunk? I don't want to over do it.

[Tequila Mockingbird]

holy asscrackers! i know what i'm making everyone for christmas presents, and it is NOT oatmeal raisen cookies this year...

[all business]

Wow, I tried this for the first time and it's a tough project. You are good. I spent too much time trying to get the alcohol content right. I used vanilla vodka and it turned out great. Thanks for the tips.

[Corn too]

For an alternate starch, try potato. This is more expensive than corn, but the difference may become less with the demain for corn for ethanol. Bob's Red Mill sells potato for $31.50 for 25 lbs (as apposed to $19.99 for corn).

[mmmm]

Oh man! Use limoncello and you'd have a fantastic lemon drop candy for grown ups!

[Big Dicks]

This is awesome! I need to try this on my Halloween party. Many thanks for the recipe!

[Mount Kelud]

Fantastic, I'll prapare this as halloween sweets for kids ;-)

[glawton]

I'm really hung up on the amount of alcohol put into this. Vodka's usually measured in liters and not grams, so what would the 52.5 grams of vodka be in liters?

[J.J.]

I was under the impression alcohol burns off or evaporates above room temperature. If you dump vodka into 85C liquid I have a feeling you're going to have a lot of vodka flavored candies with no alcohol. Nothing worse than the pain of vodka without any of the reward.