Sugar panning, or simply panning, is a method for adding a candy "shell" to candy or nuts. Popular candies that employ this process in their manufacture include dragées, M&M's

M&M's

M&M's are dragée-like "colorful button-shaped candies" produced by Mars, Incorporated...

, and jelly beans. Jelly beans use soft panning whilst the other two are examples of hard panning. The process was initially invented in 17th century France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 to make jordan almonds

Jordan Almonds

Jordan almonds, also known as sugared almonds or confetti, are a type of confectionery consisting of almonds covered with a candy coating in various colors, originating from Italy and particularly typical of the town of Sulmona...

.

Method

Hard and soft panning both are made in a similar fashion, but with different ingredients and at different speeds. A dragée pan is used. This is a circular or oval pan mounted on an angled spinning post. The pan is open to the air to allow ingredients to be added and the syrup to dry. The centers are put in the dragée pan and syrup is added. The pan spins and the syrup is evenly distributed over the centers and dries on as a layer. Soft panned layers can be quite thick and do not well preserve the shape of the center. Hard panned layers take longer to dry and can be typically as thick as 10-14μm.

The choice for centers is wide, but they must be strong enough to not break during the tumbling. Nuts should be dried and sealed, such as with gum arabic

Gum arabic

220px|thumb|right|Acacia gumGum arabic, also known as acacia gum, chaar gund, char goond, or meska, is a natural gum made of hardened sap taken from two species of the acacia tree; Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal...

 and flour

Flour

Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...

, to prevent oils from escaping and discoloring the candy shell. Other centers may be precoated for sealing or to improve the syrup sticking to the center. Chewing gum is difficult to pan without precoating.

Materials

Soft panning uses a syrup which will not crystalize such as glucose. To assist in drying, powdered sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 or caster sugar is added during the tumble.

Originally, sucrose

Sucrose

Sucrose is the organic compound commonly known as table sugar and sometimes called saccharose. A white, odorless, crystalline powder with a sweet taste, it is best known for its role in human nutrition. The molecule is a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose with the molecular formula...

 was the sole ingredient used in hard coat panning and is still used in some applications today. However, it has some disadvantages and dextrose has largely replaced it in most hard-panning operations. As an ingredient that represents the greater part of the coating, sugar for some time has been more expensive than dextrose. It also produces a coating that chips more easily and doesn’t color as well. The syrup is sensitive to heat, producing some caramelization, which is better suited to burnt peanuts or similar products. It also will invert if there is too much acid in the coating. Dextrose, on the other hand, suffers fewer of these problems, and coaters, having been fortunate
enough to experience the transition from sugar to dextrose, adapted very quickly and were enthusiastic to make the change.