Welcome to How To Cook That I am Ann Reardon and this week we are attempting to making
3 different kinds of cotton candy from around the world.
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Let's start with pashmak from Iran I love this but it's really expensive to buy.
To make this you will need sugar, flour, glucose syrup, oil and sesame seeds.
All the recipe quantities are on the howtocookthat.net website and I'll link to that below for you.
Place the oil and the sesame seeds into a blender and continue to blend until you have
a smooth liquid, this may take a few minutes so just be patient with it.
Keep blending it until you don't have any chunky lumpy bits in it anymore.
Pour that mixture ... and the flour into a saucepan and stir it over high heat until
it thickens into a paste, then keep stirring it for about another minute until all of the
starch granules in the flour have burst so it doesn't taste floury.
I love the taste of pashmak but I actually couldn't find a written recipe for it anywhere
which was frustrating me, so I am experimenting with this one today based on the ingredients
that you find on the packet.
Ingredients are listed in quantity from most to least so I've just kinda worked it out
from there.
Remove this from the heat and then leave that to cool.
Grab a baking tray and fill it with rice, this is just to create a warm work surface.
put another baking tray on top and place it in the oven at 80C or about 176F.
And leave that there to warm up.
Add a teaspoon of vinegar to your glucose syrup, and then add in the water and the sugar.
Put that onto high heat and give it just a little stir just to make sure the sugar is
wet.
Then brush down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush you do this just to get
rid of any sugar crystals from the edge.
If you have any sugar crystals there it will make it crystalise again at the end and we
don't want that.
Now add a candy thermometer to your pan and leave that unstirred until it reaches 133C
or 271F.
Remove that from the heat.
And now grab your tray out of the oven and rub some oil on the top one, so this has the
warm rice underneath it so that it stays warm while we work.
Pour the sugar syrup on top and then using a spatula move it around, just moving the
edges into the middle, so that it doesn't set hard on the edges and still be runny in
the middle.
We want an even texture the whole way through and you want to keep doing that until it cools
to a temperature where you can handle it.
Roll that into a ball and make a hole in the centre, and you can use your thumbs or I'm
using the back of the whisk to make a hole through the middle here.
Now I have never made pulled candy before so we'll give it a go.
Apparently what we want to do is gently squeeze that to make a bigger circle trying to make
sure it is even without any thin bits.
Then continue to stretch it into a larger ring.
By letting it rest on the warm oiled surface it just helps to keep it soft so it's easier
to work with.
Once it is about this thick flip over one side to make a figure of 8 and then bring
one side over on top of the other.
So now we have 2 stands, stretch that out and gently pull it, make and 8 again and pull
it again so now we have 4 stands.
Twist and pull, twist and pull stretching it out, twist and pull.
Keep doing that, keep twisting and pulling, keep going a few more times.
Now what we want to do is just pop that on the tray and then pour some of the sesame
paste into the middle.
Continue to twist and pull like before but each time dipping it into the paste.
Now my paste was completely cold so it is getting really hard to pull the sugar I feel
like it's just made that sugar set immediately.
And now because I am pulling so hard I feel like I am squeezing the strands back together
when I'm squeezing with my hand but I'm actually pulling as hard as I possibly can so I can't
not squeeze with my hand.
It is starting to look like pashmak but there is no way I am going to be able to keep stretching
this to get it super fine strands.
Hang on a minute, Dave just walked in, can you pull the other end for me?
Just pull ...
Ahhhh ... It snapped!
Oh I'm going to have to start again!
It is looking pretty good but I think it needed about 5 more twists to get it really fine.
It tastes perfect just like store bought pashmak with that slightly nutty flavour from the
sesame.
Not bad for a first attempt.
Let's try that again but this time I am going to wear gloves so I can handle it sooner while
it is still a bit hotter.
I am going to use cotton gloves first and then two silicone gloves over that.
And I'd suggest you do that because that just means that you won't burn your hands by accident
on the hot sugar syrup or anything like that.
I am also going to put the sesame paste into the oven to warm that up as well.
The first part of the process is identical I am just starting to stretch it when it is
a little softer than it was last time.
Twisting and pulling, twisting and pulling and keep doing that then grab the warmed sesame
paste out of the oven.
Let's see if we can get this finer than last time, stretch and pull this is much softer.
Last time as soon as I put it on the sesame paste it just started to go cold and crisp
up and there was no way I could keep pulling it.
Look at that it is looking much better, but I am out of paste and the strands are starting
to stick to each other so I am going to swap to some cornflour.
Wow that works really well, look at that it's just like hair.
The kids are going to love eating this after school today.
Okay let's go to Cotton candy number 2 from Korea, this one is called Dragons Beard and
they make it look so simple when you see them making this on the street.
They just twist and pull in the same way that we did for the pashmak and there's is perfect.
Instead of using a paste they just dip into the flour each time and they start off with
a disk, it's a little bit different.
There are recipes for this one online and some say to use cornflour and other say to
use rice flour.
I am going to try rice flour today.
To make the actual sugar bit we need water, glucose syrup, sugar and vinegar.
Place all of that into a pan, wash down the sides and we want to boil it to, you guessed
it, 133 degrees C just like we did for the pashmak.
And then this is where it gets different . Instead of pouring onto an oiled tray you want to
wait for it to cool to 100C in the pan and then pour it into disposable food containers.
And this amount will make about 6.
I quite like this way because you can make 6 all at once, with the pashmak way that we
did it you have to make one lot at a time, so it's a lot more time consuming.
You can add a couple of drops of food colour here but be warned if you add too much and
stir too much you will make it crystalize and then it is no good for this.
Leave them to cool for a couple of hours and then tip them out of the container by pushing
on the bottom until it drops out.
Place that on some baking paper and put it in the microwave on low until it is just soft
enough to work with.
Now I found mine got really sticky in the middle and was still hard on the edges so
I had to need it together into a ball to get that even consistency.
Again be really careful because sugar is very, very hot.
Make a circle and then twist and pull just like we did last time, but again I'm finding
that it sets before you can get it super fine.
It is winter here in Australia so it is pretty cold but I think the secret must be in that
they keep dipping into that flour and it looks like the flour is in some kind of wok.
So I think that's been warmed gently from underneath.
Let's go to attempt Number 2 ... I'm going to put the flour in the oven first.
Now that our flour is warm and I can just dip that back into the flour each time it
is much easier to work with.
You can just keep pulling it and it's nice and soft, I'm getting lots of broken strands
but I think that's my initial circle was a bit uneven and probably my technique is not
great compared to the masters in Korea that we see.
But all in all it's not bad.
This has a completely different flavour because it doesn't have the sesame paste.
But the best part is pulling it - it is so much fun, you have to try making this, whether
you make the pashmak or the Dragons Beard it is great fun to try.
Give it a go!
One tip for you though: if your flour is too hot it will melt the strands so then it will
all start to clump together again, it just has to be warm.
Just at the right temperature.
Here in Australia we have our own type of cotton candy which I think we got from the
US or UK, I don't know which one.
But it is basically just flavoured sugar that is melted and then spun using a machine.
You just wind it onto a stick.
It is super light and melts in your mouth, the texture is quite different to pashmak
or dragons beard.
Let me know which one is your favourite and what you'd like me to make next.
Check out some of my other videos here....
Make it a great week and I'll see you on Friday.
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