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This year, instead of excelsior to line your Easter baskets, why not make Angel Hair?

Cheveaux d’Ange (French for Angel Hair) is similar to cotton candy, but easy enough that if you can boil water, you can make it yourself. It is messy, but that is part of the fun. Just put down lots of newspapers, and clean-up will be a breeze.

This sounds strange, but it helps if you have a step stool to stand on when you make this. As you swirl the sugar syrup over the long handles, it helps if it has a way to fall before landing on the handles or whatever you decide to use to catch it.

Tools:

• a non-reactive saucepan, with lid, pretty much anything except aluminum
• a candy thermometer
• 2 long-handled implements, like spatulas, to drizzle the angel hair over
• 2 forks (or, an old whisk, with the closed end of the wires cut off)
• a pan for holding cold water, that the saucepan can fit into

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 3/4 cup corn syrup
• 2t beeswax, grated (You can skip this, but it does make the candy more user-friendly; you can use a beeswax candle if you cannot find culinary beeswax in your store — just be sure it is not colored or scented; beeswax is a pure ingredient)
• optional: food coloring, if you want it to look grassy
• A bowl of cold water

Make it:

1. Combine the sugar and the corn syrup in the saucepan. Mix well and place it on medium heat, and do not stir the mixture again.
2. Bring it to a boil, and cook for 12 - 14 minutes over medium or low heat (it should turn a light color, about 318° on the thermometer). If the sugar crystalizes, put the lid on the saucepan for about 30 seconds so the steam washes it off the sides.
3. Remove the syrup from the heat, and grate in the beeswax (if you are using); the beeswax will melt right away, so mix it with the rest of the sugar. The beeswax coats the sugar threads, which makes them dry and easier to keep and use.
4. Let the syrup cool for a couple of minutes by placing it in the bowl of cold water — but don’t let any water splash into the syrup.
5. The syrup should be thick. Stir in the food coloring, if you are using.
6. Put the long-handled implements on the edge of the table, so that the handles are sticking out over the edge, newspapers on the floor.
7. Dip the forks back-to-back into the syrup, and wave them over the long handles, drizzling the syrup. Make your movements long enough, and broad enough to really stretch out the threads — and you should be high enough over the handles so that the syrup has a chance to dry as it floats down to the handles. You are aiming for long, fine filaments.
8. Slide the Cheveaux d’Ange off of the handles — it is ready to use or store in a tightly covered container.

Adapted from Jacques Pépin’s Complete Techniques.

Kevin : DIY Projects
March 26th, 2006