Pashmak

Pashmak (پشمک) is an Iranian sugar confection made by pulling boiled-down sugar into fine threads. White or pale fibers form bundles, and when a piece is torn, many layers of fine strands come apart. In English it is called “Persian cotton candy,” but it is not exactly the same as the cotton candy sold at fairs and festivals. Because the sugar is pulled together with wheat flour and fat, its texture differs from that of light threads made from sugar alone. It is well known as a sweet of Yazd in central Iran, but thread-like sweets with the same name also exist in Central Asia.

The Persian word pashmak is a diminutive of pashm, which means hair or wool. The name is linked less to a single thread than to the appearance of fibers gathered into a bundle.

Pulling Sugar into Loops

What distinguishes pashmak is that it is made by stretching a cohesive mass of sugar, not by spinning thin streams of sugar syrup into the air. In the Iranian method, sugar and water are boiled down and cooled slightly until the sugar can be handled, and then it is formed into a loop. Toasted wheat flour and fat are prepared separately, and the loop is pulled and folded back within this mixture. As the stretching and folding are repeated, the bundle gains more strands and each strand becomes thinner. Some workshops use stretching machines in addition to handwork. The flour is not just a decoration sprinkled on top after the sweet is finished. It is an ingredient worked in while the sugar is being divided into finer and finer strands.

In a process video published by Haj Khalifeh Ali Rahbar, a producer in Yazd, amber-colored sugar is poured onto a work surface, folded together with a spatula and handled as a thick band that is pulled. The band is formed into a loop and laid on a separately prepared mixture of flour and fat. While a machine pulls the loop, an artisan works the mass and gradually turns it into pale bundles. Finally, the fine fibers are loosened by hand and piled up lightly. The loop shape and the process of pulling while mixing in flour and fat lead to the finished form, which looks like a tuft of wool.

Records of Uzbekistan’s intangible cultural heritage also document the process for pashmak. There, sugar, water, vinegar, wheat flour and animal fat are used. Fat is added to the boiled-down sugar, flour is dusted over it, the mass is pulled until it becomes fibrous, and the bundles are gathered and cut. This example shows that the name pashmak does not refer only to an Iranian sweet, and that the technique of pulling sugar together with flour and fat also exists in Central Asia. However, the proportions and boiling conditions used in Uzbekistan are not necessarily shared by every workshop in Yazd.

Cotton Candy, Pişmaniye and Soan Papdi

Fair-style cotton candy is made by spinning sugar syrup out of a rotating device and collecting the threads. Pashmak is made by folding back a loop of sugar and making the bundle finer while adding flour and fat. Even though they look similar, the threads are formed in a different order.

Turkish pişmaniye is also compared with pashmak as a thread-like sweet that combines flour, fat and sugar. Indian soan papdi also has fine layers or fibers, but the best-known versions use chickpea flour and other ingredients and are pressed together and cut into squares. These sweets share the technique of turning sugar into fine bundles, but their combinations of ingredients, the way the bundles are gathered and the way they break apart in the mouth are not uniform. A sweet loosened into threads and one gathered into squares also look different when they are portioned out.

Between Old Names and Today’s Methods

The verses of the 15th-century poet Bushaq At’ima include an example of pashmak named as a sweet. Later, the Qajar-period cookbook Jame’ ol-Sanaye’ included an entry titled “How to Make Pashmak Halva.” The name appears in old texts, but it is not known whether the methods of those times continued into today’s Yazd technique of pulling the sugar with flour and fat.

Modern Sweets That Use the Thread Form

Pashmak is not only portioned out on its own but is also added to ice cream, cakes, fruit and other foods. Because the fine bundles are loosened and heaped on top, this finish differs from crushing hard candy and scattering it. The Australian producer Pariya continues to use the hand-pulling technique while offering flavors such as rose, orange blossom, pistachio, saffron, chocolate and vanilla. Some of the company’s products use wheat flour or sesame oil, which shows that sugar confections made with flour and fat continue in modern products.

The present-day association of pashmak with Yazd as a local specialty does not make it possible to identify an inventor from a particular dynasty or the first workshop. What the process records from Iran and Central Asia show is the concrete work of pulling sugar.

Fine pashmak fibers gathered into bundles. An example that the photographer introduced as a pistachio-oil-flavored product. Photo: Alpha / avlxyz / CC BY-SA 2.0, creator’s public page. Unaltered except for the size delivered by the source.

Glossary