subject: Mmmm Cotton Candy [print this page] Cotton Candy, that fluffy, usually pink, stuff that is the charmer of children and the bane of their parents. Despite being the bane of parents, they secretly want to get some too. What exactly is it that they are buying? Obviously it's made with a lot of sugar, but sugar is not pink, blue, purple, green, or yellow. There must be more to it than just sugar.
Well, yes it is more than just sugar, but not much more than that. In fact the only other ingredient is Flossine. Which I imagine brings you to another question, what is flossine; I know that was the first thing I thought. Flossine is probably what you would expect it to be, food coloring and flavoring. So it all sounds pretty simple, get some sugar, flossine, and a machine and your set. Basically you're right.
The mixture of flossine to sugar might be a part that gets you into some trouble. The appropriate amount of flossine to sugar is very surprising. You need one to two heaping tablespoons of flossine for every 10 lbs of sugar. To top this off you need to mix this very evenly, so the cotton candy will have a uniform flavor and color. Not to worry though, you can buy a mix, it's called Cotton Candy Floss.
So now it's off to the races right? Sure if you have a machine and know how to use it. It really isn't too hard to do, so long as you actually practice a bit before trying to show off. To use the machine it's a good idea to know what the machine is doing. The whole process is based on heat and centrifugal force. The sugar mix is heated until it is liquid, and the centrifugal force pushes it out of the floss head (center piece) and through a screen with small holes. These small holes force the liquid into small streams, and the streams turn solid in the cool air becoming cotton candy.
With all that heating, spinning, squeezing, and cooling you don't want your treat to just fly away. To catch the candy you can adjust the angle that it exits the floss head, shooting more up or down as you desire. Wiping the inside of the bowl with a damp cloth will leave just a hint of moisture on the surface, which the cotton candy will cling to. The same can be done to the cone that you are using to collect the cotton candy.
