Turning Werther's Into Cotton Candy Is Like Food Magic

Cotton candy is always fun to eat -- it's just so weird, biting into something spongy and then having it instantly dissolve in your mouth. The sensation never gets old, which is unfortunately more than we can say for the flavor. Most cotton candy tastes pretty much just like the sugar from which it is spun, which is fine as far as it goes, but a little one-dimensional. There are flavoring agents that can be added to cotton candy to make it taste like anything from apple to watermelon, but if you're at home using a countertop sugar spinner, there's an easier way to make cotton candy with the delicious flavor of caramel: Make it with grandparent-approved Werther's Original candies.

In order to turn Werther's caramels into cotton candy, you'll first need to smash them into a powder. You should also preheat your cotton candy maker as per any instructions that came with the unit. (If you bought it at a thrift store and it came without the manual, try giving it 10 minutes to get up to candy-making heat.) Pour the crushed candy into the machine the same way that you'd add granulated sugar, then spin it around a paper cone or a stick once it starts to get all fluffy and spiderwebby.

Read more: 13 Store-Bought Ice Cream Bars Ranked From Worst To Best

Not Every Kind Of Werther's Is Going To Work

One important caveat before you begin your adventures in DIY cotton candy making: You can't use just any kind of Werther's -- or, for that matter, other types of candies. Cotton candy can only be made out of hard candy, and this hard candy cannot have any kind of filling or coating. Some of the different varieties that can be put to this purpose might include root beer barrels, lemon drops, atomic fireballs, starlight mints, and Jolly Ranchers.

As far as Werther's line of candy products goes, there are just a few of these that are suitable for turning into cotton candy. These include the hard caramels, the coffee caramels, and the sugar-free versions of the same as well as the sugar-free hard chocolate caramels. The apple-filled and caramel-filled candies will not work, however, as these are actually bonbons similar to those infamous strawberry grandma candies; this means that they consist of a hard candy shell with a soft filling. All of the different types of soft and chewy caramels, too, are not recommended for cotton candy makers as their soft consistency may make for a melty, mucky mess instead of a tasty ball of fluff.

Read the original article on Mashed.