Since childhood, we all love the taste of cotton candy, which is associated with summer walks in the parks and the happiest moments. Now such a delicacy can be purchased even in a regular grocery store, but the taste is no longer the same, and the quality is cause for concern. That's why The best way go back to childhood again - cook cotton candy with your own hands.

Cotton candy recipe

If you're willing to put in some time and effort, we'll show you how to make cotton candy in your kitchen.

Ingredients:

water - ½ tbsp. ;

sugar - 1.5 tbsp. ;

vinegar - a few drops.

Preparation

Before you make cotton candy yourself, you need to stock up on everything you need, namely: a saucepan or frying pan in which you will cook and forks or Chinese chopsticks that will serve as holders for the cotton candy.

Start preparing homemade cotton candy with caramel by mixing sugar, water and vinegar and pour the resulting mixture into the prepared bowl. Place on the fire and heat, stirring all the time. You need to bring the liquid to a boil, after which you can remove the pan from the heat, cool the contents, and then heat it again. This manipulation should be repeated 4-5 times. As a result, you should get golden-colored caramel with a fairly thick consistency.

Now comes the most crucial moment. Dip a fork into the hot caramel and begin moving it around the prepared and pre-attached holder. This way you should wind the sugar threads around the holder. You need to continue this process until you get volume like real cotton candy. Don’t be discouraged if something doesn’t work out the first time, you need to get better at this.

Please note that the sugar threads are very hot, so you should be extremely careful when winding, and children should not be allowed into the kitchen at all. In addition, before preparing cotton candy at home, you should cover all working and adjacent surfaces with film or paper, so that you don’t have to wash them for a long time and painfully.

Cotton candy at home

For those who are interested in how to make fruity cotton candy at home, we offer the following recipe.

Ingredients:

water - 100 ml;

sugar - 300 g;

vinegar - 1-2 drops;

flavoring additives.

Preparation

We all love the colorful, flavored cotton candy found in stores, but it turns out that this treat can also be made at home. First, prepare the sugar syrup - mix water and sugar in a saucepan, add the vinegar and mix everything well. And now it’s the turn of additives for cotton candy: you can take ready-made ones, which are sold in the store, or you can use natural ones. To add color and flavor to cotton candy, lemon juice, raspberry or mint syrup, or even beet juice choose at your discretion.

After adding the selected additive to the syrup, put it on low heat and cook, stirring constantly. After the mixture boils, remove it from the heat, cool slightly and return to simmer. Do this 4 or 5 times, but be careful that the color of the mixture in the pan is golden brown and not dark. It should be thick and stretch well.

Now select the utensils for making cotton wool. Take, for example, wooden sticks, fix them vertically on the surface and make sure that they hold well and will not fall. After this, dip the tip of the whisk in sugar syrup and move it around the stick, winding sugar threads around it. Break the frozen unused mass that remains in the pan into pieces and you will have delicious candies.

Cotton candy is the most favorite children's treat. In the old days, one could try this dessert only on major holidays, in good weather, or when visiting a children's park. Now anyone can purchase a special practical device to make cotton candy.

The main component of cotton candy is sugar. It can be very different, for example, weight granulated sugar from the store or a special multi-colored one with various fruit additives. In order to make cotton candy yourself, it is more convenient to use the second type of sugar, since you do not have to buy additional syrups and other components.

If there is a device

To make your favorite delicacy at home, you need to have a so-called compact machine (there are also industrial ones). They are small and have a special turbine in the upper bowl. They work on a simple principle:

• Sugar must be poured into the turbine itself;
• Then turn on the device;
• The turbine heats up, and the sugar gradually turns from solid to liquid;
• Thanks to the high speed of rotation of the turbine, such liquid sugar is distributed along the walls of the bowl with the thinnest sugar thread;
• This string of sugar eventually turns into our cotton candy. It just needs to be assembled onto a special stick.

However, at home you can prepare cotton wool in another way. In this case, sugar syrup must be made in advance.

• The syrup itself is directly poured onto the disk, which is installed in the apparatus instead of a turbine;
• The device works like this: it rotates quickly, and the future delicacy ends up on the walls of the device;
• The resulting cotton wool is wound on a special stick.

It should be noted that this device is somewhat more difficult to use, but it provides an excellent opportunity to experiment with additional syrups or other additives.

If there is no device

If you don’t have a special machine designed for making cotton candy at home, don’t despair. The means at hand will come to your aid.

• First, you need some kind of frames for winding threads of sugar. For example, cocktail tubes, sticks or regular spoons. These frames must be fixed vertically.
• You will also need a tin bowl, a saucepan with thick walls or a frying pan with a whisk.
• As for the ingredients, you can use granulated sugar directly (you determine the quantity yourself, it all depends on the portions), water, the proportion of which in relation to sugar should be one to three. For example, 300 grams of sugar means 100 ml of water. You will also need half a teaspoon of vinegar, as well as food coloring.
• When all the ingredients are collected, you can start cooking. All ingredients need to be mixed in a bowl and then transferred to a heating container (frying pan or saucepan).
• It is necessary to heat the mixture over low heat while stirring continuously so that the syrup does not burn. When it boils, you need to remove it from the stove and cool slightly.
• This procedure must be repeated about four times.
• When the syrup turns golden, check to see if it stretches well. If all the conditions are met, you need to dip a whisk in it and move it around the improvised frame.
• You need to stop when the desired volume is reached.

It’s easy to see that you can make cotton candy at home without special equipment, you just need the desire and a couple of basic supplies. By the way, many lovers of this dessert who prepare it at home offer beginners some tips:

“For example, I never get rid of excess syrup. You need to make the most of all the ingredients, so you can make lollipops out of it. By the way, they turn out very tasty! Very reminiscent of childhood..."

“My syrup was very loose at first, so it wasn’t possible to make cotton wool. Then I read somewhere that you just need to press it down, so to speak, with your fingers. The problem went away, cotton wool began to turn out, I’m very pleased! By the way, the method itself is very simple, the cotton wool obtained is no worse than that which is made on all sorts of newfangled devices. I recommend!"

Fruit cotton wool

Exotic lovers can make fruit cotton wool at home. Of course, it will be a little more difficult, but it is quite possible. To do this you need to do the following:

• Take some water (about two hundred ml), sugar (at least 600 grams), half a teaspoon of vinegar and the food additives that have been selected.
• You need to make sugar syrup in advance in the same way as described earlier. Then mix it well with flavoring additives. For example, you can buy any syrup in almost any hypermarket. Raspberry, apple, vanilla.
• The assortment is varied and everyone can choose according to their taste. So, such a “tasty” component needs to be added to the resulting syrup, and then the mixture should be cooked again over low heat.
• Further steps depend on how you prepare the dessert. If using a machine, pour the syrup into it. If you use improvised means, then start reeling.

And in the end

As you can see, everything is brilliantly simple. Try, experiment and enjoy your favorite delicacy! And finally, here’s one more piece of advice from a girl from Astrakhan:

What syrups do you mix? I really like to experiment! My favorite combinations are nuts with caramel, mint with lemon, strawberries with vanilla... the list is endless!! For my birthday I was given a cotton candy machine, and I still can’t get enough of it! My advice, try different flavors, the cotton wool will definitely not get worse, and you are guaranteed to experience new sensations, good luck to everyone!

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28.06.18 36 345 10

He makes money from sugar

The story of an entrepreneur with a starting capital of 100 thousand

As a child, I dreamed of gorging myself on cotton candy and even tried to make my own machine from a washing machine drum.

Ivan Shabashov

makes cotton candy

And then I grew up, bought a professional device and decided that I could make money from my dream.

I bought the device two years ago. During this time, I made many mistakes, gained experience and understood how to most profitably organize the work.

This is some kind of cotton wool, brother

If you've ever wondered what cotton candy is made of, here's a quick summary.

Take regular granulated sugar. It is poured into a special machine. Inside, the sugar heats up, melts and turns into a hot, thick syrup. Due to centrifugal force, liquid sugar flies out through the smallest holes and solidifies in flight, turning into a sugar thread. Cotton candy is made from this thread.

The person who prepares the cotton wool catches these fibers on a stick, spins a roll of the required size and gives it to the children, who are distraught over this miracle, while the parent hands him a bill.

In general, cotton candy is just granulated sugar with good marketing.

What types of devices are there?

The basis of the work is in the apparatus.

I didn’t know where to start, so I read several Russian and American forums where they discussed the pros and cons of the work and different devices. As a result, I made a list of what I needed to buy and started choosing a device. I planned to keep it to 50 thousand rubles.

I wanted something inexpensive, reliable and powerful. I didn’t think about the type of power supply and horizontal or vertical supply then; I appreciated the importance of these parameters after the purchase.

Most of the cotton candy machines are produced in China, the USA and Russia. In Russia, almost everyone works on Chinese devices because they are cheaper. But this is their only advantage. If you buy a device in China, it will cost 150-200 dollars. Intermediaries in Russia have a price range from 9 to 30 thousand rubles.

The main disadvantage of Chinese devices: they often break down and have low performance. They heat up in 2-3 minutes, you can’t just turn them on and start working, you have to wait - and this is downtime. After 20 pieces of cotton wool, the device becomes clogged and has to be cleaned. At this time, the point is idle.

There are Russian devices: they are reliable and cost 30-55 thousand. American ones are made to last, but very expensive: 55-150 thousand rubles.

There are two types of cotton candy machines: some feed cotton to the side, others feed upward. Devices with vertical feeding allow you to make beautiful figures and colorful bouquets from cotton wool. Cotton wool from a machine with horizontal feed can only be wound onto a stick.

The devices also differ in the type of power supply: there are electric and gas. With gas you are not dependent on the power grid, which means you are more mobile. This is convenient if you are going to work at outdoor events - at a photo shoot in the forest, at a holiday in a children's camp - or just on the city embankment. But in the shopping center with gas equipment They are allowed in reluctantly.

How I chose the device

I was looking for a universal device that can be used both on the road and in shopping centers. I chose the electric model.

First I decided to try cotton wool from different devices to see if there is any difference in taste at all. To do this, I bought a portion of cotton wool at different points in the city. The cotton wool from the Chinese machine was soft, but yellowish and with an off-flavour. This usually happens due to caramelization of the sugar - in other words, the sugar is burnt. Also, “Chinese” cotton wool was thin, similar to a spider’s web. The cotton wool produced from the Russian machine was white, fluffy, without lumps, but more pungent. Unfortunately, I did not find an American device in my city.

I abandoned the idea of ​​buying a Chinese device at the very beginning of my search. The choice was reduced to devices from the American manufacturer Gold Medal and the similar Russian TTM - Tvertorgmash. American devices cost from 55 to 130 thousand rubles, for comparison I took the most cheap model- Breeze.

Comparison of American and Russian apparatus

"Twister" from Tvertorgmash

Continuous operation time

Time to launch

Servings per minute

Sugar per serving

From 32,000 R

"Breeze" from "Gold Medal"

Continuous operation time

12-14 hours

Time to launch

Servings per minute

Sugar per serving

Didn't find information

From 55,000 R

It was not possible to compare all parameters: detailed reviews There are practically no American devices, but the reviews about “Twister” were good, so I decided to focus on it.

As a result, I bought a device with horizontal feed through a Moscow online store with delivery by a transport company to a warehouse in Kemerovo. I paid 32,500 R for the device and another 2,500 R for delivery.

Width="2000" height="1500" class="" style="max-width: 1000.0px; height: auto"> I work on a device from the Russian company TTM “Twister-m”. Bought for 32,500 RUR

Consumables

We have the device, now we need special clothing and consumables: sticks, sugar, dyes.

Sticks. You can twist cotton wool on wooden or plastic sticks, or even on paper straws. It’s easier to work with ribbed wooden sticks - cotton wool wraps around them well. But plastic is the most profitable: low cost, different colors, the required length.

Sugar I bought it at Lenta. To work you need regular granulated sugar. It can be bought at any store. To make the cotton wool white, it is important that the sugar is white and not yellowish.

Water needed to wet plastic sticks - this way the cotton wool sticks to them better and is easier to wrap. If you have to work in the field, you also need water just for washing your hands. For this purpose, I additionally carry a sanitizer and wet antibacterial wipes with me. A day of work requires approximately 5 liters of water.

Workwear- you need disposable gloves, sleeves and caps. I bought everything from a packing supply store. But disposable hats look shapeless and not very festive. Later, instead of hats, I bought a neat chef's hat. You can use a bandana or other headdress, the main thing is that your hair is covered, as required by sanitary and epidemiological standards. The uniform was sold as a set - shirt, trousers, cap, apron and scarf. I paid 1500 rubles for the set:

Dyes I bought four different colors and flavors. I decided not to experiment and took Flossine brand dyes: they have best reviews. I chose the apple flavor - green dye, grapes - purple, vanilla - yellow, bubblegum - pink. The brightness of the shade can be adjusted. I found out through experience that for very bright color A tablespoon of dye per 1 kg of sugar is enough cotton wool. The jar contains 450 grams - which means it is enough for 30-45 kg of sugar - this is approximately 2000 servings of cotton wool.

In my experience, colorful cotton wool sells well at children's and themed parties. And in parks and shopping centers, parents are more willing to buy white cotton wool for their children, without dyes: they are afraid for their health. Apparently, white sugar is good for health, but slightly colored sugar is harmful.

Spending before launch - 44,100 RUR

RUB 32,500

Delivery

2500 R

Dyes for cotton wool

5000 R

Plastic sticks

1200 R

100 pairs of gloves

250 R

1500 R

Disposable sleeves, 100 pcs.

250 R

Disposable caps, 100 pcs.

300 R

2 bottles of water 5 l each

100 R

10 kg sugar

500 R

First experience

Soon they called me and I received my first order. One children's religious organization celebrated the celebration at a country camp. That day I realized that my expenses were not over.

• Tent - 5000 RUR
• Dome for the device - 7500 RUR
• 2 extension cords 20 and 50 m - 2200 R
• Table - 1200 RUR
• Chair - 400 RUR

I don’t have a car, so for my first order I took the device and all the consumables on a commuter bus. I got up at 6 in the morning to catch the flight at 7, and spent an hour shaking on a bus for 50 rubles. We still had to walk about 500 meters from the stop to the camp. It was inconvenient: I was carrying a heavy device in my hands and a large bag over my shoulders.

We discussed with the customer over the phone that I would need a table and electricity. I received a desk and 2 old extension cords on site. Children touched the wires with their feet, and the electricity was cut off a couple of times due to an unreliable connection. In the open space, the wind blew the cotton wool, and it stuck to clothes, faces, hands, and people in line. Otherwise, everything went well, after the holiday I even managed to make cotton wool for the entire camp staff.

The dome is needed to prevent the cotton wool from flying around. And sometimes, along with a thin thread of sugar, a hot drop of syrup flies out of the machine. It is small, but sharp, like glass chips. Therefore, the dome is also needed to protect customers, especially children who like to stand closer and look into the cup.

Now I take a taxi for orders. The cost of two trips with luggage there and back is included in the price of an hour of work. It costs from 150 to 300 rubles to bring and take away everything you need in my city.

I don't order freight transportation, I call a regular car. In the comments, I ask you to arrive with an empty trunk and indicate the dimensions of the cargo. The machine with the bowl, the table and other attributes are always packed in special cases, so they don’t stain the machine with sugar and, what’s much more important, they don’t collect dirt on themselves.

Legal issues

To ensure that everything was in accordance with the law, I decided to open an individual entrepreneur and wondered what OKVED code to register the business under.

I carefully studied this issue and found out that the following codes are suitable for the production of cotton candy:

• 52.24.22 - retail sugary confectionery products.
• 52.6 - retail trade outside stores.
• 52.62 - retail trade in tents and markets.
• 52.1 - retail trade in non-specialized stores.
• 52.12 - other retail trade in non-specialized stores.
• 55.52 - supply of catering products.

I settled on 52.24.22 because this code allows the entrepreneur to additionally sell ice cream, chocolate and sweet water - this is especially important in the summer.

Only a person who has a health certificate and valid results medical examination. In my city, medical books are issued by the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology. You need to take a 3 × 4 cm photograph and a passport with you. Registration of a health certificate costs 1,500 rubles.

1500 R

I paid for a health certificate

You can undergo a medical examination at any paid medical center. I spent 3 hours on it. The medical examination includes appointments with a therapist, psychiatrist, narcologist, dermatologist, dentist, otolaryngologist, fluorography, ECG and tests. You also need to listen to lectures and pass the sanitary-technical minimum. The entire procedure takes about 10 days and costs about 2,000 rubles.

I usually make the cotton wool myself. But for large events where I need to work for more than 4 hours or require several devices, I hire promoters with health certificates. The most convenient option is students of food colleges. You can find them through agencies or write an ad on social networks. In Kemerovo, an hour of work for a promoter costs 200-250 rubles.

When purchasing a cotton candy machine, be sure to check with the seller whether he will send a quality certificate, which confirms that the machine meets all standards: you cannot work without it.

Difficulties

Staff. If you put an employee in charge of the machine, and then come at the end of the working day to collect the proceeds, they can deceive you. The most simple circuit: the seller buys his bag of sugar, spends the whole day making cotton wool out of it, and takes the proceeds for himself. And at the end of the day he gives you your almost full bag and 100 rubles for 2 servings of cotton wool, explaining this by the fact that there is no demand.

You can combat this with secret shoppers, CCTV and stick markings. I prefer to work independently.

Surely many people associate cotton candy with childhood, trips to the park or square, which were always accompanied by eating it. Sometimes you want to remember this taste, but a family trip for a walk is not planned yet. In this case, you can make cotton candy at home with your own hands using a simple set of ingredients. Without a special apparatus, the process, of course, will be difficult, but if desired, it can be mastered.

If you plan to prepare this delicacy often, pampering your children and yourself, it makes sense to purchase the necessary device. Its cost is relatively small, it is easy to use and completely safe.

Equipment

If you decide to purchase a device for cotton candy, or more precisely, for its preparation, you need to know how to use it correctly:

The process of making cotton candy using special equipment is carried out in several stages. The device is warming up. Pour 1-2 tsp of sugar onto the disk. When melted, the product turns into crispy, sweet threads. Now they need to be transferred to a stick.

You can use bamboo or sushi chopsticks. They are lowered into a bowl in a vertical position. When rotated, the threads themselves wind around it, forming a fluffy ball. If there are fibers left on the walls of the container, you can also pick them up using a cotton candy stick.

If there is a need to prepare colored treats, you can use dyes by adding them to sugar.

This equipment allows you to quickly prepare delicious sweets, but it also has its drawbacks:

• The device is quite bulky. Its dimensions are similar to those of a food processor or slow cooker;
• Inexpensive equipment heats up very quickly, so when preparing cotton candy, they need to be turned off periodically. If this is not done, the device will soon fail.

Do not forget to clean the bowl of the machine, otherwise over time it will be completely covered with a layer of sugar.

Having such a device, you can organize constant production cotton candy. Some even think that it is great idea to create and develop your business.

DIY equipment

The operating principle of the device is simple, which encourages many to create it themselves. To do this, you will need a simple set of materials that can be found, perhaps, in every home, and skillful hands.

Here's how to build this device with your own hands. Clean 2 tin caps (eg bottle caps) with a file or sandpaper. Do large hole in one of them and several small ones in the second lid, connect them with wire.

Now you need to attach a motor from some home electronic device(for example, from a hair dryer). Using wire, attach the entire structure to a board, which will become the base of the device. Using the terminals, attach the motor with the battery (you can use a crown battery).

Place thick cardboard on one side to create a partition. The device in which you can make cotton candy at home is ready and can be used like regular equipment. You can heat the rotating drum using a candle or lighter.

Despite the simplicity of the design, it is not safe, so it is better to acquire original equipment or do without it altogether. A delicacy prepared with your own hands will turn out no worse than one made using a machine.

In a frying pan or in a saucepan

To get started, practice cooking with a small amount ingredients. The process will require skill. In this regard, it is possible that the first couple of times you will just have to practice.

Ingredients:

• Sugar – 2 tbsp. l.;
• water – 0.5 cups;
• vinegar – 2 drops;
• fork, Chinese chopsticks.

Cooking method:

That's the whole cooking principle. Don't forget about safety precautions. Hot sugar syrup can burn if you are not careful when handling it.

If the first time the cotton wool does not turn out as you expected, there is no need to be upset - next time it will be better.

Colored treat

Colored cotton candy is especially loved by children and adults, but how to make it at home? It's absolutely not difficult. Today there is a huge variety of dyes and food additives, which will allow the treat to acquire a new taste.

The most popular dyes: yellow curcumin, red betanin, yellow saffron, purple anthocyanin, fiery red paprika. True, when studying their composition, it becomes clear that there are very few natural ingredients - all chemicals. When preparing treats for children, you should not use such components.

You can make colored cotton wool using the juice of fruits and berries (strawberries, raspberries, lemons, oranges, mint syrup, etc.). It diversifies the taste and gives a beautiful color. The technology for preparing the treat will not change - just add the juice to the rest of the ingredients.

If you cook in a frying pan (or in a saucepan), use less water - the required volume of liquid will be replenished with juice. Having prepared several syrups with different additives, you can connect their threads, then the sweetness will turn out to be multi-colored.

When preparing the ingredients, it is important to note that the sugar for making cotton candy must be of the highest quality. You should not use dyed raw materials - most likely, chemicals were used to add color, so just use natural dyes.