KBB#22: Spun Sugar

hello again my dearest reader.. today i'll give you one amazing KBB's challenge again. hmm, this challenge was quite shocking yet fascinating this time. i am so glad to be able to try and make this beautiful spun sugar. never tried before but i've already seen lots of them in my life and they are so wonderful. i've never thought that i'd make it somehow. i love making spun sugar, the reason is because i love pastries so much and i also love arts, making spun sugar is like combining those two of my favorites together. moreover, it's caramel! sweet!

spun sugar is basically done by burning sugar syrup until it becomes amber color and when it start to thicken it is shaped into our own imagination. we can use either spoon or fork, and for something more artsy we may use trimmed whisk. wondering what is a trimmed whisk? it is actually made by cutting all of the circular wire edge of your whisk so you will end up having a whisk that looks like Harry Potter's magic broom. lol. however, making spun sugar will create an awful mess in your kitchen so before you start spinning the sugar, please cover all your working area with parchment paper or newspaper.

to be honest, i didn't experience too much problem on making this spun sugar. i stick with the original recipe of this challenge and they turned out so satisfying for me. it is all maybe because i do caramel quite often and i've befriended them long enough, or maybe i'm just lucky this time.. the only key to create beautiful spun sugar is patience. you have to wait quite long to see the syrup turns into the amber color. and as you all may have known already, be very careful when you make caramel, you work on an extremely hot temperature. beside all of the spun sugar madness, KBB's theme this month was actually titled 'Made In Indonesia' and KBB still asks us to make something that was created by an Indonesian people or something that was originally came from Indonesia. so, i used one of my own recipe of Molten Chocolate Cake and decorated it with the spun sugar. ta-da!

Molten Chocolate Cake with Spun Sugar
serves 2 ramekins

50 gr bitter-sweet cooking chocolate

75 gr butter

2 tsp cocoa powder

1 tsp dark rum

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/2 tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 tbsp all purpose flour

direction:

1. preheat the oven to 350 deg F. prepare 2 greased ramekins, dust them thinly with sugar. set aside.
2. melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler. when the butter has all melt, remove from heat. stir it gently from the center of the bowl to the outside.
3. add in the cocoa powder into the chocolate-butter mixture, stir gently until it dissolves. add the vanilla extract and rum.
4. beat the egg, egg yolk, sugar, and salt until they become very pale and creamy. mix in the chocolate mixture until they are evenly incorporated. fold in the flour.
5. pour the batter into the ramekins and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the edge look firm but still wobbly in the center.
6. to serve: place an up-turned serving plate on the ramekin, gently turn them upside down, and the cake will slowly fall into the plate. serve warm with a scoop of ice-cream or a dollop of whipped cream, garnished with almond flakes if you like.

Spun Sugar (Angel's Hair)

from Dessert Techniques by Le Cordon Bleu Cooking School

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 cup water

direction:

1. heat the sugar syrup to 311 F then plunge into a pan of cold water to halt the cooking process.
2. cover your work surface with parchment paper. holding a rolling pin in one hand over the paper, dip the whisk into the sugar syrup and flick it back and forth over the rolling pin so that railing threads are formed.
3. gently gather up the strands and fold them back over the rolling pin. loosen and lift them or slide them off the pin gently.
4. break the sugar in half and gently shape each half as desired in your hands.

what happened in my kitchen?

• for the molten chocolate cake: i served it with a shot of baileys and omitted the almond flakes.
• for the spun sugar: i made half of the recipe's amount, i ended up with 2 angel's hair and 2 caramel cage. 
• i didn't use candy thermometer, the indicator of 311 F is when your spun sugar starts to turn into amber color, take it off the heat and plunge the saucepan into the cold water.
• do not place the saucepan in the cold water for too long or it will harden quicker.
• i didn't use rolling pin for gathering the sugar strains, i used one pair of wooden spatula as you can see on the photos above.

so, it's quite intimidating and i'm not gonna lie and tell you that it is an easy and simple task. this is quite difficult and need a little higher technique. but if you are patience and careful, i'm sure you can do this. believe me, this is really fun and i really want to make another spun sugar again next time.

thanks for reading everyone! :)

may you have a super amazing day!