Sugar spun run

Lately, my five-year-old and I have been binge watching foodie videos on Tik Tok. There’s a trend going around where the creator has a glass of punch and giant ball of cotton candy in which they gingerly dip the candy into the punch and it instantly dissolves. Kinda satisfying to watch. She wanted to know how sugar dissolves so quickly in water. While I didn’t have a scientific answer for that (I’ll work on that) I decided to implement cotton candy into our homeschool lesson today.

And while we didn’t actually end up successfully making cotton candy, we did have fun with the process and the result was quite beautiful too!

First I dissolved:

2 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp light corn syrup

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp water

food coloring

flavor

I don’t have a candy thermometer. Instead I used the pretty reliable method of having a glass of cold water nearby and drizzling your boiling sugar mixture into the cup and seeing how it sets to determine the temperature and stage that its at. If it stays soft in the water then its at the “soft ball stage” which is good for making caramel and other treats but for hard candy you need it at the “hard crack stage”. Once the mixture meets the water it should turn hard really quickly and break like a twig.

I used a medium-sized saucepan with the temperature at medium heat. It took about 15 mins to get to the hard crack stage. Once the sugar dissolves in the water, do not stir. Just let it do its thing.

Oh hello there pretty little owl <3

Once the sugar mixture is at the “hard crack stage” take off heat and add in some flavor (I had lemon extract) and food coloring (I did a dainty drop of rose). Stir. Place saucepan on something that won’t harm you counter like a towel or trivet.

Line your workspace with parchment paper… It might get messy.

In all of the homemade cotton candy blogs, it suggested using a whisk and cutting off the ends of it to make a sort of long, spiny fork. I didn’t want to sacrifice any whisks so I opted for a fork with long twines and it seemed to work the best.

Now scoop up some of the mixture onto the fork and then WHISK. FAST.

The motion of the fork in the air creates the strands of sugar. Its pretty neat. But its not like cotton candy. In fact, this experiment made me wonder if I should be on the lookout for a cotton candy machine at the thrift store in the future?

It’s a fun activity and gives kids experience in the kitchen.

I think our next kitchen inspiration will be learning how to make pulled taffy. Oh that sounds exciting! Stay tuned!