Impress your guests with this unusual (and delicious!) topping for your glass of bubbly. They look a little bit like sparklers and they are easier to make than you might think.
INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
Champagne / sparkling wine
INSTRUCTIONS
Line the table or floor you are working on with newspaper. The sugar can fling quite far sometimes, so make sure you have a large work space covered and newspapers will make clean-up much easier. Place a baking pan upside down onto your work space. Place a piece of parchment paper over it, tucking the end into the pan. You can also use a large bowl or something similar. You basically want a non-stick surface for the spun sugar threads. When the sugar is first spun, it is malleable enough to bend and shape so you can make them on a flat surface and then shape them. However, if you have specific shapes in mind, you can adjust accordingly. For example, if you want to make a nest, you could wrap parchment around a small upside down bowl and fling threads around the bowl. If you want a cotton candy shape, you can wrap parchment paper around a large stick/mixing spoon, etc.
In a medium pot, add sugar, water and syrup. Stir lightly until all sugar is wet. If any sugar is sticking to the edges of the pot, brush them down.
Bring your pot to medium heat. Let mixture boil and do not stir or touch it (very important!!). Allow it to boil until it turns a light pale yellow. Once it reaches that colour, immediately remove pot from heat. If you want to make a more gold coloured spun sugar, allow the mixture to boil slightly longer until it turns a slightly darker yellow. However, keep in mind that you will likely have to warm up the sugar mixture again before you are done making all your spun sugar and each time you warm it up it will get darker.
Allow the mixture to cool slightly. Using two forks (you can also use a decapitated whisk tool), start stirring the mixture. Lift up your fork to check the consistency of the syrup. You want the consistency to no longer be drips, but instead it should be a solid thin stream.
Working quickly (the sugar cools quickly), dip the two forks in the syrup and then move them back and forth quickly across your parchment paper. Continue doing this until you have quite a few threads, like a nest. Once it’s as thick as you’d like, remove from parchment paper and shape to desired shape before sugar hardens.
Repeat process again to make more. If sugar in the pot cools off too much and begins to harden, place it back on the stove and warm up. You should have more than enough sugar syrup to make tops for 12 champagne glasses and probably have some leftover.
The finished spun sugar will eventually get sticky and melty if they sit out too long. If you do not plan on using right away, place them gently in some ziploc bags (separated with parchment paper so they don’t stick together).
Pour champagne into flutes. Top with the spun sugar. Guests can eat the spun sugar or place into the champagne where it will dissolve for a sweet champagne cocktail.