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.
Hand-pulled Cotton Candy Tips
You are bringing the candy up to 269 degrees, and you want it to take between 20 and 25 minutes. If you have a powerful gas burner (22,000 BTUs), medium heat is perfect. If you have a conventional gas or electric burner, try medium high or high heat. Watch the temperature closely. If it is rising too slowly or too quickly, adjust the heat accordingly.
If you have sugar crystals on the side of your pan, wash them down with a wet brush.
One-quart plastic containers are perfect for this recipe. You could divide the candy into other containers, but be sure they are made of flexible material so that you can pop out the discs of candy when they are solidified.
You need a fine powder to keep the candy from sticking together as you pull it into strands. Cornstarch works well and is neutral in flavor. Cocoa powder mixed with cornstarch also works well. You may mix any ratio you like.
If your candy is too hard to work, microwave it for a few seconds at a time until it is pliable in the center.
As you work the candy, keep it moving through the cornstarch so that its strands remain separate.
Cutting the candy with a scissors will glue the strands together. Pull it until it tears if you wish to separate portions.
Hand-pulled Cotton Candy
Converted for American kitchens from the French Culinary Institute’s Tech’N Stuff blog, Cooking Issues
Yield: four generous bundles of about 16,000 strands each
Ingredients:
4 1/3 c. sugar
2 c. water
1 t. vinegar
scant ½ c. corn syrup
1 drop food coloring (optional)
cornstarch for working the candy
Method:
- Place all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan and stir them together extremely gently, so as to not get any sugar crystals on the side of the pan.
- Bring the mixture to a boil.
- Insert a candy thermometer and watch it closely. When it reaches 268 degrees, remove it from the heat.
- Allow the candy to cool to 212 degrees in the pan.
- Then divide it evenly into four one-quart plastic containers.
- When the candy reaches room temperature, remove it from the container by squeezing gently as you turn the container.
- Place a generous sprinkling of cornstarch onto a baking sheet with sides.
- Roll the candy in the cornstarch and rub off the excess.
- Now with your thumbs and forefingers, burrow a hole into the center of the candy.
- Using gentle pressure, enlarge the circle. Keep the candy a uniform thickness around the rope.
- When the rope becomes long, twist it into a figure eight and bring the two halves together.
- Now you begin pulling the candy in earnest. Hold the candy in both fists. Your front hand remains stationery while your back hand gently pulls. Rotate your hand positions and the candy and continue pulling until the strands are long.
- Make a figure eight, bring the two halves together and continue pulling.
- Pull the candy for ten to fourteen turns.
- Refer to the step-by-step photographs above and to this excellent video from the French Culinary Institute’s Tech’N Stuff blog.
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Wow! Love all the pictures of the pulling process!
Wow! It reminds me of playing Cat’s Cradle with my kids!
Oh my God!! This is fantastic and unimaginable.. I’m drooling right now. We call this as cotton candy in India and I am a crazy fan of it. The process looks classic
and never knew it can be made at home. Great job 
Oh, I’m so glad you enjoyed the post! Making the candy was quite easy and a lot of fun.
Thank you so much for this tutorial! I heard about pismanye a few weeks ago and have been searching for a proper recipe. So helpful!
Stephanie, I’m so glad you found it helpful. It is quite easy and fun to make.
Wow this looks amazing, sounds hard to do but looks easy with all your pictures. brilliant!
Rachel, Thank you!
How long does the cotton candy keep for?
Melanie, I’m afraid I don’t have a good answer for you. Both times I made it it was devoured by children within hours. I suspect it would be okay prepared a day ahead, but it’s quite supple and I think it would dry out. If you don’t mind something of an edible nest, you could make it in advance.
We made this today. And it was a long process
and so so much fun
It made heaps. And there were four of us pulling
And laughing we were aged 13 21 and 44
Fun for all ages
However it does not. Will make it next time when there
are plenty around to eat it. It was a big solid
lump a few hours later.
Like I said well worth the effort and so much fun. !!!!!!!!
Suzanne, Wonderful! And thank you so much for the information on keeping it.
I think you have 32768 strands after 14 turns, not 16384. After 0 turns there are two strands, the two fat ones that come from just making the hole. After the first turn there are 2^2=4 strands. After two turns there are 2^3=8 strands, and after 14 turns there are 2^15=32768 turns.
This is amazing! I can’t wait to try this.. reminds me of watching the pulled noodles at the markets in Xi’an!
Lucy, It is amazing–and quite easy. Good luck with it!
Omg this is amazing. I can’t wait to try this.
Christina, Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Can you add flavoring to this?
I think a drop or two of extract would be just fine. Best of luck with it!
you are mistaken, we very much call it Cotton Candy in Canada, never even heard the term candy floss before!
Robin, I stand corrected! Thank you.
We tried this today! We couldn’t quite get the strands thin enough but we are inspired to make this again, a batch of red and a batch without coloring and a bit of peppermint to make candy canes!
Our son and his friend absolutely loved this and couldn’t wait to take bags of our candy to our neighbors!
DinaS, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Hi there! What an amazing idea! I am wanting to try this with my gf’s daughter as I think we would both have a blast doing it. I have a question (and maybe I missed it somewhere on here): what would the measurements/ingredients be on the sugar syrup? Sorry for the basic question here
Thank you for such a great post and I will be frequenting your site
Lucas
Lucas,
If you scroll to the bottom of the post, there is a detailed recipe with measurements; the print button is on the top right. Hope you enjoy it!
We are planning on making this today and I was just wondering if the vinegar is a teaspoon or a tablespoon? Thanks!
Melani, It’s a teaspoon. I hope you enjoy it!
Bellissimo Post!
Giulia
I would love to make this for a bake sale of sone sort. Would this do well in plastic baggies? I doubt it but if you have an answer I would love to know!!
Abbie,
The candy was best the day I made it and it dries out rather quickly. Plastic baggies might help. If you’re going to try, I’d make the candy the day of the event if possible. Good luck with it!
This looks very much like the taffy my mother made when I was a child. The difference is that we did not pull it through cornstarch but continued to pull it until it was fairly stiff. We then cut it into bite sized pieces and rolled in corn starch. When it was completely solid, we then wrapped the pieces in waxed paper. I remember a few times trying it on my own but I never had the energy to pull it all (when I was a kid we had several people pulling). When that happened, I cut and dropped the soft candy into the corn starch then froze it. Loved it then and if I had it now, would love it as an adult. The cotton candy we can get at the fairs is spun sugar – sugar melted with nothing added then spun in a high speed devise creating more of a mass of sugar the size of hair. Many different flavors are available.
Leanne,
Thank you for sharing that with me. xx