Walk away.
No, really - it works. Once you add the water to the sugar, it will likely harden and clump up (I don't know how to stop that happening). But once it does, you can just walk away, and leave it to sit till it cools down.
A lot of the sugar will just dissolve on its own, given time and enough water to dissolve into. Some mixing (occasional stirs as or after it cools) will dissolve some more. And at the last, when most of it has dissolved, you can gently start heating the pan up again, stir it around, maybe bring it to a boil for a bit, maybe add a bit more water and heat some more to get at those last undissolved chunks...
It's sugar, in water. It will dissolve until the water's saturated. It takes time to dissolve on its own, and that's annoying if you want to use it right away - hence measures like heating, or stirring, or crushing the dried caramel to stir into water that way. But it really works just as well, and is less tedious, just to give it some of that time and let it dissolve away.
I did this when making a caramelized burnt-sugar syrup, and it worked. Adding the water was pretty spluttery at first (the caramelization had to be stopped pretty fast), but I did notice the caramel hardening to the bottom of the pot once it had settled a bit. I gave it a few stirs, and walked away to take care of something else - and by the time I got back to it, most of the lumps were well on their way to dissolving.
According to this step-by-step set of instructions from Livestrong, you can definitely make sweetened coconut from dried coconut.
Things You'll Need:
- 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
- 1 tbsp. powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp. canola oil
- 2 tsp. water
Instructions:
Blend dried coconut and powdered sugar with a whisk in a medium-sized bowl until the mixture is uniform.
Combine the canola oil and water in a small bowl, stirring until the ingredients are well blended.
Pour the liquid ingredients over the sugared coconut. Stir them to thoroughly coat the coconut.
Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, or until the coconut absorbs all the liquid. Stir the mixture once or twice to turn it over.
Use the moistened, sweetened coconut immediately for best results. Alternatively, place it in a plastic freezer bag for short-term
storage in the refrigerator or long-term storage in the freezer. While
sealing the bag, press out as much air as possible.
Tips and Warnings:
The vegetable oil moistens the coconut and helps the powdered sugar
adhere better. If desired, increase the amount of water in the recipe
to 4 tsp. and eliminate the oil. Likewise, substitute the canola oil
for safflower or sunflower oil. Don't use olive oil, however, as its
saltier flavor will mask or diminish the sugar's sweetness. The recipe
calls for a small amount of coconut because it's best to use homemade,
sweetened coconut as you make it. You can easily double or triple the
quantities of each ingredient to make larger batches. Sweetened,
shredded coconut will stay fresh for about a month in an airtight
container stored in a cool, dry place or the refrigerator.
If the instructions don't work out for you, I'd suggest re-hydrating your coconut in a bowl of room temp water, draining the water out of the bowl, blotting the coconut until damp, and then adding the sugar.
Best Answer
Calling the solution "simmering water" isn't a good characterization. The boiling point of pure water is 100C. But the boiling point rises as the concentration of sugar in the solution increases. Once you're above 75% or so, the boiling point increases significantly. For 90% sugar (still 10% water remaining), it's up to around 120C.
As the water evaporates, the sugar concentration, the boiling point, and therefore the temperature all increase. When you reach 160C, there's probably less than 1% water and the decomposition of the sugar (carmelization) rate starts to increase significantly.
There are some charts/tables for different concentrations here, but they only goes up to 90%