Hand-pulled Cotton Candy

I stumbled on a photograph of pişhmaniye on the Honest Fare blog this week and had to make it.  My niece Elisabeth was coming to spend the morning with me yesterday, so we added it to the list of projects for the day.  She liked making smoothies, chocolate cookies, coconut macaroons, waffle fries, and Reubens, but she flipped for this.  Cotton candy in the United States, this gossamer candy is called papa’s beard in France, dragons’ beard in China, pashmak in Iran, pişhmaniye in Turkey, fairy floss in Australia, and candy floss in Britain, Ireland, South Africa, and Canada.  Whatever you happen to call it, it’s delicious, and it’s easier to make than you might imagine.  You have to watch temperatures as it heats and cools, but the pulling process is simple and fun.  And the finished candy is almost too pretty to eat.

As promised, Miss Elisabeth, here are the step-by-step photos for your birthday party tonight.  I hope you have a ball! xo

You begin with the boiling sugar syrup.  Watch the temperature closely as it approaches 269 degrees.  Remove it from the heat when it is about one degree away.

When the syrup cools to 212 degrees, divide it evenly between four one-quart containers.

When the containers of candy reach room temperature, they are ready to be pulled.  Place a bed of cornstarch on a baking tray.

To remove the candy from the quart container, gently squeeze the container as you rotate it.  It takes a little patience, but it will come out.  Just keep squeezing and turning.

With your thumbs and forefingers, burrow a little hole into the center of the candy.  If your sugar syrup cooked improperly and your disc of candy is hard in the center, microwave it for a few seconds at a time until you can make an indentation in the center of it.

Now begin to work the candy into a bigger circle.  Use gentle pressure, and keep the candy a uniform thickness.

And a little bigger.

And a little bigger.  Keep everything even, and keep using gentle pressure.

When the candy gets about this big, loop it into a figure eight.

And bring the two halves of the figure eight together like this.

Now the real pulling begins.  Hold the candy in both fists.  The front hand remains stationery.  The back hand ever so gently pulls on the candy.

Bring your back hand to the front position.  The candy rotates.  Now pull gently again.  And rotate the candy and your hands again.

As you pull and rotate, the candy will get thinner and thinner.  When it’s about this big, make another figure eight by twisting your hands.

And bring the two halves together.

Begin pulling again.

And rotating and pulling.

And pulling. Until it’s time to make another figure eight.

And to bring the two halves together.

You’re getting the feel for it now.  Keep pulling and rotating.

Make a figure eight.

And bring the halves together.

Keep pulling.

And pulling.

And making figure eights.

And bringing them together.

Every time you make a figure eight and bring the strands together you are doubling the number of strands you are pulling.

You can work a little faster now.

Just keep everything moving through the cornstarch so that the strands will remain separate.

Working the candy until it is about this length and then making another figure eight.

Keep going.

And going.

Until you’ve done between ten and fourteen turns.

After fourteen turns, you’ll have 16, 384 strands of hand-pulled cotton candy.