Cotton Candy?

[TheStarvingArtist]

I've seen menu items/photos/etc. of unusual flavors of cotton candy (fernet branca, pineapple, and so on), and I can't mentally process how that would be done...   anyone ever make cotton candy and successfully flavor it in interesting ways? How?

[Lisa Shock]

It's really simple; a basic taught in culinary school (yep, even the savory side students learn it in their basic baking classes) and featured in most confectionery books. You just boil and flavor sugar like you would for hard candies then use a cutoff whisk to whip it between a couple of rods on the end of a table.

[Tri2Cook]

Yes-ish... but not really. That makes a nice spun sugar for decorating but it's not much like eating cotton candy. This should get you in the ballpark for the general technique using fat-based flavors. A little tweaking would probably get it to work with non fat-based flavors. The technique Lisa describes does work and, if you're quick enough, can get some really fine strands but it's still not even close to what you get from a machine. Even the cheap home "toy" machines will give a much better result than doing it by hand if you're looking for soft, fluffy cotton candy like you would buy.