Cotton candy, savory and sweet

[Irishgirl]

Last November a friend and I went out for a rather expensive dinner that was extremely disappointing, but at the end, just before we were given the bill, we were served a fresh batch of ethereal-smelling vanilla cotton candy.

I have never liked cotton candy, but was tempted to taste this confection just because of the smell. It was fantastic. It led me to thinking about other flavours of cotton candy that would be just as enticing.

Now I know that the people who made this probably just stuck some vanilla beans in the sugar for a week or so before they make the candy, but if I were wanting to make another flavour, a more complex flavour, what would I use to flavour the candy?

From what I gather, the candy is made from straight sugar. If it can't be an infused syrup, then would you use an oil based flavouring, or an alcohol based flavouring......or ? My concern is that I wouldn't want to damage the machine that I would be working with. From what I understand, anything water-based is a no-no.

Suggestions?

[gfron1]

Oddly enough I just read up on this in the new Pink Pastry Book which I'll be reviewing later tonight for eG. They say that there are only two ways to get flavor in 1)artificially in the sugar, and 2) sprinkles on top. The artificial route that has worked for me in the past has involved Kool-Ade or Country Time. For vanilla I might sprinkle vanilla powder on the top. Another thought I had was to infuse vanilla bean in sugar (slow process), then use the sugar, but even then I don't think you would get the punch you're talking about.

The book says that regular white sugar is good, but Course Candy Sugar is the best performer for maximum output.

[Jeffje]

RE: the neutral base - Domino Sugar makes a product called Envision which is sugar that has been crystallized with an ingredient that blocks your taste buds' ability to taste it as sweet. i've got a sample, but i haven't really played with it much. theoretically, you should be able to use it to achieve the textural effects of sugar in a savory application.

[psantucc]

Many years ago now, in my teens, I set out to make Cotton Candy with very strong flavours, as opposed to the vaguely fruity sweet which is all that makes it through most commercial sugars.

What worked best for me at the time was making a batch of ordinary boiled sweet/hard candy/hard tack with about 50% more flavoring oil than I would want for usual purposes. I pulverized the batch in a food processor once it was cool, and mixed it 50/50 by volume with regular granulated sugar. This mix worked well in both a toy machine and my current Gold Medal Tornado, though it does reduce the life of the head (in the toy) and ribbons (in the pro machine).

If you should try this method, airtight storage with a desiccant is necessary. Hard candy is quite amazingly hygroscopic.

With the greater knowledge I have today, I believe I could get just as good a result by slowly tumbling sugar with the flavoring oil, introducing a little oil at a time to avoid clumping. I've seen references to old machines made by Gold Medal that do that very thing from the time before they introduced pre-flavored sugars. I haven't tried to do this yet... but am hoping to any time now.

I also never went for a savory (at least not since I looked up the melting point of salt B-}+), but did manage a nice range of sours by sprinkling citric acid on the floss as it formed. Citric acid in the head will burn and turn very nasty indeed!

Let me add to the list of powdered flavors finely shaved or crushed chocolate. One of my most popular flavours was a mint-chocolate chip with shaved chocolate sprinkled on the floss as it formed.

Good luck with your experiments - you've inspired me to dig out the Tornado and try again!

[jasie]

Found this gadget while randomly surfing~

http://www.japantrendshop.com/ame-wataame-...aker-p-195.html

REALLY expensive, but if it works... Kinda cool to think what the cotton candy would taste like with different candy and if you could mix different candy!

[Mistinguett]

I'm helping a friend planning a large outdoor weddding party for next spring, and one idea was having a cotton candy machine. I was wondering if I could make savory cotton candy and that's how I discovered this thread and it's been helpful. My mind is racing right now, dreaming delicious clouds of all sorts of flavored cotton candy.

With the little read I had on commercial cotton candy machines I learned that if you use your own flavors they shouldn't be gum or starch based.

How else can I flavor the sugar? Haven't thought a lot of flavors but bacon cotton candy was one, and I'm planning on trying to flavor the sugar with real fried bacon (vanilla like - stupid idea? or should I ground the bacon and mix with sugar?) All experimenting will be done on a cheap machine, so I don't really care if I ruin it. I care about messing up the big machine and the party, though.

I also found very interesting the use of palm sugar in Kerry Beal's post #192 here:

Could this be flavored in any way?

Also love the idea of maple sugar.

just did some flavoring with powders on plain cotton candy: yuzu, soy, and mushroom mimics nobu's black cod miso; yoghurt powder and mango powder make a cloud like lassi

I'm intrigued, please tell me more - I understand you sprinkled the flavors on the cotton candy. Proportions? any source for the yuzu, soy and mushroom powders?

The lassi is a fabulous idea, also! Can't wait to try.

[Digijam]

I'm helping a friend planning a large outdoor weddding party for next spring, and one idea was having a cotton candy machine. I was wondering if I could make savory cotton candy and that's how I discovered this thread and it's been helpful. My mind is racing right now, dreaming delicious clouds of all sorts of flavored cotton candy.

For savoury, you've got the option of either:

1. Incorporating the sweetness into the final flavour - think gastriques/sweet-and-sour, or other flavours where sugar plays an active role. At allium we serve cotton candy flavoured with vinegar as part of our 'lamb with hay and wool' dish.

2. The alternative is to eliminate the sweetness. As mentioned back up on the thread, envision will temporarily muck about with the diner's sense of taste. You only need a small amount of the envision powder, so it blends well with the sugar prior to spinning. You can check out the results of my savoury candy floss tests here: http://afeastforthes...ry-candy-floss/.

One way to create your own powders for sprinkling is to utilise maltodextrin. Should work well for strongly flavoured things like yuzu and soy. We use this technique at the restaurant to make our own vinegar powder. I covered the basic technique over on allium's blog: http://alliumfood.wo...12/a-sour-note/

Alternative you can buy commercially made vinegar powder, or the slightly dodgy home sushi version of it. Mushroom powder is fairly easy to make yourself or can be purchased online.

[Mistinguett]

Thank you so much for your input, it definitely gives me some direction. And your blogs are fabulous. Way above my level of expertise, but inspiring and wonderful.

I'll have to start experimenting as soon as I narrow down a few definitive flavors. It looks like the bacon is a bit too complicated for me if I'd go after the foie gras recipe... not sure we'll want to go for that, I'll have to discuss it with my friend. Maybe I'll give a try to a sprinkling of bacon fat-maltodextrin mixture, see what comes out.

I'm still open to advice and ideas though

[kleinebre]

Candy floss/cotton candy has been my project for this february 2013 and I dare say it was quite successful. The picture below was my very first attempt, and frankly one of my LEAST successful attempts:

And this is my "amazing" (ahem) candy floss maker:

You're seeing it right... It's nothing more than a 10 cm diameter candy can with a bunch of holes in the side on the bottom. I'm pretty certain you don't need to drill quite that many holes. This took me about an hour with a rotary tool, after which I sanded down the inside and outside to get rid of the sharp edges and to make sure the melted sugar has free flow out of the can.

The rotary tool itself, by the way, cost me 10 pounds when I bought it, long before I ever thought of making candy floss. You may already have one around.

The spindle in the middle is a dremel mandrel (part number 402). In this very first try I used an 1.6 mm drill bit.

Basic method: Set up a bowl or bucket to trap the candy floss. Set up the rotary tool with home-made candy floss attachment. SLOWLY melt sugar (plain sucrose) on the hub while stirring. Once melting starts, optionally add crushed candy of your choosing for flavouring and proceed until just liquid. Add food colouring as desired.

Hold spinning rotary tool in the bottom of a clean, deep bowl or bucket and gently pour molten sugar into the spinning drum while slowly lifting the contraption.

Benefits of making candy floss this way:

- Contraption is essentially cost-free, unless you still need to go out and buy each and every part, in which case it should cost you under 15 pounds all in.

- Considerably better results than "hand spun" sugar

- Works better and costs less efforts to put together than most home-brew candy floss makers

- Contraption won't take up huge amounts of cupboard space

Drawbacks:

Just the floss, no cones or sticks. Since both your hands are busy (one holding a rotary tool, one pouring hot sugar) you won't be able to collect candy floss as it's being produced. After each batch you'll have to clean the attachment.

Notes:

- Just sugar works fine, sugar mixed with candy seems a bit more viscose and works better. Pure candy may be too viscose and will clog up the holes.

- Apparently sugar doesn't melt but decomposes; word is that when heated slowly, it decomposes/melts at lower temperatures than when heated quickly (I haven't measured this). I did find that slowly heated sugar gave for a more uniform texture of the candy floss, and also found that it helped me prevent that burnt caramel flavour that I got on my first try.

- After use the holes of the candy floss attachment will be clogged. Simply immerse in hot water for cleaning.

- You'll be able to reuse it many times, so the 1-hour attachment making is a one time effort.

- My rotary tool is advertised as 12000 rpm. However it will slow down as soon as sugar is poured into the spinning drum. Yield varies depending on speed. The highest speeds don't necessarily give the highest yield. Wikipedia says that commercial machines spin at 3450 rpm.

- I've tried maltodextrin (not exactly sure what kind-- years ago since I bought it, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't tapioca). It didn't work quite right. I tried heating it with a tiny bit of water to make a very heavy syrup but the texture reminded more of corn starch than of syrup. I read somewhere that when heated, it will char before it melts, YMMV.

Oh, and by the way.

I've also tried making candy floss attachment using a paper cup, punctured with a needle. This only takes about ten minutes instead of an hour, but is NOT RECOMMENDED for various reasons. The hot glue might not withstand the temperatures of molten sugar. In my case, it did... and I even managed to make a small amount of candy floss this way. HOWEVER the shape of the cup makes the boiling sugar creep up the sides of the cup, which knocks the cup off-balance and you'll have boiling sugar splattering around. (Don't try this at home: I did so you don't have to).

As for what peanutgirl said earlier in this thread:

"To make anything more than a toothpick full of cotton candy, you will need a fullsize cotton candy machine. The toy ones won't cut it... although they are the most inexpensive way to go."

I'd argue otherwise.

Edited February 16, 2013 by kleinebre (log)

[kleinebre]

Produced a video by now as well. Enjoy.