Ingredients:
- 2c Granulated Sugar
- This is the regular old "white" table sugar that looks like salt.
- 2tsp Liquid Pumpkin Spice Flavoring/Extract
- I like to use Lorann Pumpkin Spice Baking Emulsion. Just make sure that your flavoring doesn't contain any particulate matter, because it'll interfere with the flossing process, as the particulate matter won't melt like the sugar will.
- Food Coloring
Equipment:
- Mixer With Bowl
- Trust me, you'll want a high-speed stand mixer for this, because trying to use a hand-held mixer and get everything added in properly while holding the bowl to keep it from achieving low earth orbit is a nightmare.
- Cotton Candy Maker
- The one I use is the Nostalgia Electrics Retro Red model. It's served me quite well.
- Cotton Candy Cones
- My cotton candy maker came with a set of reusable plastic cones, but you can either buy paper ones, or make your own out of printer paper. I'm personally not too fond of eating off of office supplies, but that's just me.
- Rubber Spatula
****Before you even think about making cotton candy, check your weather forecast first. High humidity or impending rain make it a nightmare to try to and spin the sugar out properly. ****
Put all of the sugar into the bowl of the mixer, and turn the mixer to medium high. Make sure it's not spitting sugar everywhere. Carefully add the flavoring a drop at a time while the mixer is running, being sure to land the flavoring into the sugar and not onto the side of the bowl. Give the mixer plenty of time to get it mixed in before adding the next drop. You'll want to stop the mixer and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl every few drops. Follow suit with the food coloring. I found that a general ratio of 2:1 yellow to red works well. You'll want to dye the sugar much darker than you want the cotton candy to be, as the cotton candy is mostly air, and will ultimately make whatever color the sugar is become a vaguely pastel shade.
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| Make sure you get all the dye mixed in. As you can see, I missed a spot and had to take it back for more mixing. |
Once the sugar is fully mixed (note that it will be kind of like castle sand in consistency), turn on the cotton candy machine, and let it come up to temperature. Then add the manufacturer-recommended amount of sugar to the extractor head. Mine is a smaller household cotton candy maker rather than an industrial one, so for me, the recommended amount was 1tbsp.
This part will take some patience, but wait for the sugar to start forming strands around the edge of the machine bowl. When they've accumulated enough to be "cottony," gently place the cone over the bowl and twirl it slowly, allowing the cotton candy to grab on to the cone. Keep twirling, making sure not to point the cone downward into the bowl, picking up more strands as they form. This will take some practice to get right, so don't expect your first few cones to look perfect. Once the cotton candy ball is sufficiently sized, switch to a new cone. When the sugar strands start to slow down, add more sugar into the extractor head.
Any cotton candy that you're not immediately eating needs to be stored in a zippered plastic baggie, or else it will quickly draw moisture from the air and become a sticky mess. Same thing with the sugar itself. Unused sugar is fairly shelf stable.
Cotton candy is always fun for Halloween, because you can totally skip the food coloring and pretend it's spiderwebs, or make what looks like giant ear cleaning swabs. The sugar itself is also quite tasty and can be used on its own for decorating or adding flavor. It goes amazingly as "sprinkles" on top of anything with frosting.
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