How to Make Spun Sugar.

November 3, 2020 by Karen 85 Comments

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I need to warn you: As soon as you read about how easy it is to make spun sugar you'll be setting a pot on the stove and trying it yourself. So don't read any further unless you're prepared to become a spun sugar master this instant.

Pieces of gold spun sugar on a vintage 3 tier silver dessert tray with a black background.

There are a couple of reasons why you want to make some spun sugar this holiday season and a couple of reasons why you don't.

Let's go through the list of why you DO want to make it first.

1. Being able to spin sugar lets everyone know you're better than they are.

2. You never can tell when a food critic's car might break down in front of your house. You don't want him/her to think you're some sort of asshead who doesn't know how to spin sugar. Best to always be prepared.

Now the list of why you DON'T want to make spun sugar this holiday season.

1. No one likes a show off (but who cares).

2. It can make a mess, splattering sugar all over your kitchen and hair and it's entirely possible the food critic will never leave your house because he will be forever stuck to the floor (but who cares).

O.K., now that that's settled, let's talk about how we're all going to spin sugar this holiday season.

The best part about spun sugar is it's easy to make. Much easier than the look of it would imply.

Table of Contents

How to make spun sugar

In a nutshell, spun sugar is just thin strands of melted sugar that have been formed into a ball, nest, ribbon, or whatever. To get the strands you have to melt the sugar, let it cool a tiny bit, then use a spun sugar whisk or something to pick up the sugar syrup and fling it around. Once it reaches the cool air it starts to harden, creating thin strands of gold.

What's a spun sugar whisk?

To pick up the melted sugar and fling it around you need a spun sugar whisk, which has lots of little tips, unlike a regular whisk which has no tips at all.

You can make a spun sugar whisk by just cutting the loops on your own whisk.

I made the one below. It's just a regular whisk that I've cut the end off of with wire cutters. This lets you have many tips for the sugar strands to come off of when you're flinging it.

A stainless steel whisk with the tines cut to turn it into a spun sugar whisk.

The only things you need are sugar, water and either corn syrup or cream of tartar.

Water, sugar and cream of tartar in a pot prior to boiling for spun sugar. — water, sugar, cream of tartar

Sugar syrup boiling in pot. — water, sugar, cream of tartar

The water, sugar and cream of tartar get combined and brought to a 300 F boil. NO STIRRING!

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Strands of melted sugar hang down from a whisk to a pot on a marble countertop.

Strands of gold spun sugar flung across 2 wood spoons over a bowl to create threads.

Once it's reached that temperature you turn the heat off, let it cool a minute or two and then dip your whisk in it and very quickly flick the whisk in long strokes to create long strands of gold sugar thread.

Twirly melted sugar around a wood stick to create spirals.

You can also wind the sugar around utensils to create coils of gold.

You're supposed to line your floors with newspaper if you make spun sugar. The first time I did this I didn't line my floors with newspapers because I'm super-cool.

And super-cool girls don't need to line their floors with paper. Super-cool girls are also stupid. And sticky.

Confused? Watch this quick video of me making spun sugar and sugar spirals.

You can flick your whisk faster and wider, but doing that is going to create more mess. Better sugar strands, but more collateral damage.

A gold ring of spun sugar sits on top of a stack of butter tart desserts.

A pyramid of sugar floss wits on top of a butter tart on a black background.

It. Is. SO. Much. Fun. I don't even know what I'm doing and I can make it look good.

It'd difficult to be great at sugar art, but easy to be good at it.

A gold coil spring of sugar coming out of the centre of a butter tart.

Overhead shot of various tarts with spun sugar decoration.

A nest of fine spun sugar encases a small sweet tart underneath.

The one thing to keep in mind, the real downfall of this whole spun sugar situation is it really does need to be made the day you're going to use it. Preferably right before.

If it isn't humid it won't be as much of an issue, but if there's any humidity in the air your sugar will lose its form and get soft and weepy.

Spun Sugar Technique

Spun sugar is a quick technique that you can add to homemade creations or even to make storebought desserts more impressive. Traditionally it's used to cover a croquembouche.

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 10

Total Time: 15

Servings:

Calories: 898kcal

Ingredients

Materials

Stainless steel or copper pot
A couple of wooden spoons
A whisk with the ends clipped

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
¼ cup water
2 Tbsps Corn Syrup or ¼ teaspoon Cream of Tartar

Instructions

Set your burner to medium low.
Pour ¼ cup of water into pot, followed by 2 Tablespoons of corn syrup (or ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar) and finally 1 cup of sugar. Make sure you slowly pour the sugar into the pot, keeping it in the centre so none of if touches the sides of the pot.
Now LEAVE it. Don’t stir it, swish it or move it. (if you stir the mixture it will crystallize) Allow the sugar to melt into the water on its own.
Heat the sugar mixture at medium low until it reaches 300 f degrees. That’s bordering the hard crack stage. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, 300 f degrees is when the sugar has just started to become a light amber colour. If it’s taking more than 5 minutes to get to this stage, turn up the heat a little bit.
Once you’ve reached temperature take your pot off the heat and let it cool down a bit. (a lot of cooks say they dunk their pot into cold water for a few seconds to stop the cooking of the sugar but I find when you’re just doing a small amount like this, you’re better off not dunking the pot into cool water because it cools it too quickly.
Take either 2 forks in your hand or a wire whisk that you’ve cut the ends off of and dip it into the sugar and lift it up. If you see tiny strands (as opposed to drips) coming off the tines, your sugar is cool enough to fling.
Set a couple of wood spoons over a bowl and just flick your whisk back and forth over it. The higher you hold the whisk the better and the stronger you fling it the better. BUT you’ll also get spun sugar all over your kitchen. I just slowly pull the sugar back and forth across the bowl. The upside? Not as much sugar around the kitchen. The downside? The strands are slightly thicker than if you fling the sugar.
Lift the spun sugar and form it into whatever shape you want. You can place it over a greased bowl or cup to get a rounded look. Or you can lift the strands as a long ribbon, wrap them around a straight sided glass or mason jar to make a big circle.
Once your sugar starts to get a bit too cool to fling, you can make your twirls. Take a spoon or knife and dip it into the sugar. Let the ribbon of sugar hang down and using a dowel or the handle of a wood spoon, just twirl the ribbon of sugar around it. I like these even more than the spun sugar and they’re way less messy to do because you aren’t flinging anything around.
10. If your sugar gets too cool to work with just put it back on the stove and reheat it remembering not to stir it while it heats up. Each time you reheat your mixture it will get darker and darker making your spun sugar more and more caramelized. So you’ll start off with spun sugar that is a light amber and end up with spun sugar that’s more of a dark amber colour.

Nutrition

Calories: 898kcal | Carbohydrates: 233g | Sodium: 32mg | Sugar: 233g

Tips Learned by Making Spun Sugar for an Entire Day.

I first made it with only sugar (hardens too quickly, isn't pliable for long).
Then I made it with sugar and water (same pliability problem, but totally doable if you don't have corn syrup or cream of tartar).
Next I made it with sugar, water and corn syrup. (this worked the best along with ...)
Sugar, water and cream of tartar (worked just as well as corn syrup)
To clean your pot once the sugar syrup has hardened in it, just fill the pot with water and put it on the burner.
Don't even attempt to make this on a humid day.
If it's winter and really dry in your house, the sugar will last a day or two on the counter before it gets weird. (melts, gets sticky). If you want to store it longer apparently you can put it in Tupperware with as many of those silica packs as you can scrounge up in your house.
Lay down the newspaper, Coolio. Just put down the newspaper damnit.

How to Make Spun Sugar.

How to make spun sugar