Greetings my beautiful lovelies. Hello it's Emmy. Welcome back. Today I'm going to be attempting to make dragon's beard candy. Now this candy has been requested by so many of you, so I am here today to finally attempt it. And if you're not familiar with this candy, it is a hand-pulled candy where you take a solid puck of hard candy and you transform it from something that looks like a noodle into something that looks so fine, it's like hair, or a dragon's beard.
So this candy is said to have originated in China, but is made in many different countries and it goes by many different names including Pashmak and Kkultarae. So today I'm gonna be making the most basic white traditional form - I'm not even gonna add any food coloring and I've watched several videos, shout out to Clifford and Corrine and Jen for doing all the legwork for me. So hopefully this will be relatively manageable.
Haha! This is really simple: basically we're going to be making a syrup that we're going to cook down to a very specific temperature and stage of sugar. Now sugar is pretty amazing: if you heat it up and get it to a certain temperature, it changes its solid state. We're gonna be cooking this particular syrup to about 170 degrees, which is the hard ball stage. But it's gonna act a little bit more like a taffy because we're going to be stretching it.
So this is what's very interesting about this. Also the technique of making the actual candy is fascinating. I've watched so many videos of Korean vendors in particular doing this in front of people and it's fascinating and mesmerizing, and so satisfying to see the math of one ring becomes two, becomes four, becomes eight, becomes sixteen, becomes thirty-two. And then you get to see a visual representation of exponential growth, or compound interest.
As I watch the syrup cook down, I can feel my excitement building up. This is going to be a fun process! I've been watching so many videos of people making dragon's beard candy, and it's amazing to think that this traditional craft has been around for centuries. The attention to detail and precision required to create these delicate strands of sugar is truly impressive.
Now that the syrup has reached the desired temperature, I'm ready to start pulling it. This is the part where you have to apply a lot of force and stretch the hot syrup until it forms into thin strands. It's like making taffy, but with hot sugar! I've been warned that this might be a bit tricky, but I'm up for the challenge.
As I start pulling the syrup, I can see the magic happen before my eyes. The strands of sugar begin to form, and then they start to multiply, just like in a math class where you have to calculate exponential growth! It's truly mesmerizing to watch the strands of sugar grow and twist into beautiful patterns.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enGreetings my beautiful lovelies. Hello its Emmy. Welcome back. Today I'm going to be attempting to make dragon's beard candy.Now this candy has been requested by so many of you so I am here todayto finally attempt it. And if you're not familiar with this candy, it is a hand-pulled candy where you take a solidpuck of hard candy and you transform it from something that looks like a noodle into something that looks so fineit's like hair, or a dragon's beard.So this candy is said to have originated in China,but is made in many different countries and it goes by many different names including Pashmak and Kkultarae.So today I'm gonna be making the most basic whitetraditional form -- I'm not even gonna add any food coloring and I've watched several videos --shout out to Clifford and Corrine and Jen for doing all the legwork for me. So, hopefully this will be you know, relatively manageableHaha!So, this is really simple:basically we're going to be making a syrup that we're going to cook down to a very specifictemperature and stage of sugar. Now sugar is pretty amazing:if you heat it up and get it to a certain temperature it changes its solid stateWe're gonna be cooking this particular syrup to about 170 degrees, which is the hard ball stageBut it's gonna act a little bit more like a taffy because we're going to be stretching it.So this is what's very interesting about this. Also the technique of making the actual candy isfascinating. I've watched so many videos of Korean vendors in particular doing this in front of people and it'sfascinating and mesmerizing,and so satisfying to see the math ofone ring becomes two, becomes four, becomes eight, becomes sixteen, becomes thirty-two. And then you get to see a visual representation ofexponential growth, or compound interest like \"yeah, all right, I get it. Exponents.\"Anyways geeking out a little bit too much about this. Let's go ahead and make this syrup. Two cups of sugar.And put it into our saucepanI'm going to add a quarter cup oflight corn syrupSpatula and get every little bit of that. This is the interesting ingredient. We're going to add 1/2 teaspoon of vinegarOne cup of water.So now we're gonna heat this up on medium heat and-we're gonna bring this up to 268 degrees and then we're going to turn off the heat because then it's gonnaHave some heat inertia and bring it up to 271 degreesThat's the temperature we want it at. So a candy thermometer is pretty important in here.I picked this up for about ten dollars, really inexpensive, and I actually use it a lotSo recommend doing that. Now we've got it to a boil. It actually smells very vinegary. (Laugh)Hmm, vinegar steam bath, lovely. Actually had dragons beard candy for the first time, I think was in one of my Emmy eats Korea videosI'll put the link down below.I haven't done the Emmy eats video in a long time. But if you want to see me eat lots of international treatsI will put the link down below and also put a link to a map that shows you all the countries that I've eatenin my Emmy Eats series. Super fun, super fun.You learn so much about a culture through its food. While this is cooking go and take a brushWe're going to rub the sides of the pot with some water and that's going to remove anyCrystals that have formed on the outside crystals of sugar nowwe don't want those crystals of sugar to enter the syrup because that can act like a seed andThreaten to crystallize the whole pot of syrup. So I will be back when this gets to270 degreesBubble bubble toil and trouble.So my syrup has come up to temperature and here we are now now we're gonna let it cool to about 212 degreesSo it doesn't melt our plastic takeout containerswe're going to pour the hot syrup into this and the reason why isThe sugar is going to harden and it will come free of this plastic container pretty easily so we can just kind of squeeze itout. So before we can work it into a candy, we're going to allow the syrup to harden almost completely.It should still have some give to it but it should still be pretty firm.So many of you think that I am perfect and I am far from it.I have editing on my side and there are plenty of bloopers if you watch my videos to the very endYou've probably seen some of them. At any rate the first batch of syrup that I cooked, I let go too long.It went to about 300 degrees. It's getting close to the hard crack stage. It is at the hard crack stage.So.Rather than throwing this out,I poured the syrup onto a Silpat sheet and then I divided it into two blobs and it is cooled downQuite a bit and is quite malleable.I cannot make Dragon's beard candy with this because it is overcooked. Candy will be the wrong texture.But I think what is interesting is I think this might actually be the texture in which I can blow the candy.I want to share my failure with you because a lot can be learned from it. In fact, that's how we learn, right?This is a pure experiment. I've never done this before take some of this and wrap it around something.Mhmmm.Yay! Look at that, I got a balloon. I got a balloon. So awesome. Lesson learned: Is that don't throw away your failures.Don't be discouraged because you could discover something new. Awesome. I have a big tray of-cornstarch.Here we go.When I watch the Korean vendors doing this, they had a special little wooden awl they used. It almost looked like a citrus reamerBut it was flat and they poked right into the middle of itnow we're just gonna work this so lots of squeezing and lots ofcornstarch.I love that sound. Can you hear that?Oh, not good. So, that was too hard. Let's try that again. To start shaping this ring.Ring. Then we're gonna twist.And now we have four. Oh, I very-Cleverly wore a black shirtNot very clever. Twist, back together again.Now we have eight. This takes some strength. And definitely some patience. Oh, I just broke mine.See, this is not working.This does not look like a beard. Moustache?Beautiful dragon sweet candy, isn't it gorgeous? Look, it looks just like edible hair.Like, if you have like stalagtites for hair. Alright, so I'm gonna try this again.I'm not gonna cook it for as long.And, I might not be wearing black.Right.Greetings my lovelies. I am back, so last night around 11 o'clockIf you follow me on instagramYou probably saw my stories that I cooked up another batch of this syrup.This is the third batch of this syrup.This is becoming, like, worse than jiggly cheesecake in terms of just the level of, you know, a names Imade sure I carefully monitored the temperature and as it was heating I did it slower, and then as it got closerto the 268 degree range I turned off the heat and removed from the heat and it still went up a little bitBut it didn't climb above like it did on my second batchAnd I think that's what the problem was, is that it actually went above 270 degrees started to go into the hard crack stage.Which made the syrup too brittle to stretch.That's my hypothesis at least.That's just the way it goes, right?Now, this is gonna take some muscle.All right. Now, we want to try to apply as even pressure as possible because we want to maintain thisring-shape and make sure that it's equidistant and centered.Yes.Feels better already.Doo doo doo. Driving the car. Okay, stop it.I don't want to do this too quickly because I don't want to thin this outToo thin in certain spots and have it be too thick in other spots. So we have a ring, it's probably about-15 inches across. Now we're going to twist it-And double it up. So from two, we have four. So, with every twist we're going to be doubling thisTwist, figure eight, pull together. Now we have eight. Love this.Twist.Sixteen.Thirty-two.Make sure we keep dusting because we don't want these to stick as we're pulling. It's amazing is if you do this moreIt becomes easier to pull them.Thirty-two.Sixty-four.One-twenty-eight.It's getting kind of messy. Alright, doubling it again. So we're at 256.Doubling it again.Now we're at 512.512 do it again and this is --1024. And now it becomes really easy to stretch once you get it really thin. Twist and pull.2,048.It's working!2,048, pull, twist, keep pulling.Now we're at 4,096. Man. This is awesome. Two more turns.8,192. This is my 13th twist and pull.All right, this is so awesome!Look at that. Okay, and now, final pull.16,384.Yes!Definitely not perfect, but this is 16,384 strands.I love it, it is so...awesome! I did it. I'm so happy.So this candy is very sensitive to humidity, and we have a thunderstorm coming in,so it is very, very humid.So it's going to be very important to use a lot of cornstarch and then use pair of chopsticks to kindatwirl it ever so gently.And that'll be a serving. And then tear it.So now that everything is covered in cornstarch, let's give our dragons beard candy a taste.All right, I'm gonna try this little dainty one that looks like a little cocoon. Here we go. AhItadakimasu.It's absolutely delightful. It has such a wonderful texture. It has that same familiar melt-in-your-mouthConsistency of cotton candy, but it's a little bit more substantial.There's actually a little bit of a chew to it, a slightly kind of taffy-like feeling but it just kind of alldissolves. And although we didn't flavor this with anything. This has still got some flavor to it.It's a little bit caramelized because we have cooked the sugar to a pretty high temperature,so it's got a slightly caramelled flavor the bit of vinegar in there does not make this tangy at allIt actually makes it less sugary, which is niceBut it's not at all unpleasant. It's really really delightful. I think for me mostly it's about that melt awaysimultaneous chewy texture.Delightful. Alright, thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you guys enjoy that oneI hope you guys learned something share this video with your friends. Follow me on social mediaso you know what videos are coming up next and what little giveaways I'm doing and a little behind-the-scene things about like my failures,and trials, and tribulations -- and just life and cooking in general.And I shall see you in my next one.Too-de-loo. Take care. Bye!\n"
