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Parvarda

Pulled sugar pillows

Parvarda are small, chewy-crisp pillows of pulled sugar, white and satiny, dusted with flour and served in Samarkand and Tashkent teahouses beside bowls of green tea; they are a winter sweet, because cool air helps the sugar set. Making them is a family job: the hot syrup is pulled again and again until it turns opaque white, then stretched into ropes and snipped. A common mistake is pulling the sugar while it is still too hot to hold, which burns your hands and makes the candy sticky. Chef's tip: wear food-safe gloves lightly oiled with a few drops of oil and pull the candy as soon as it is cool enough to handle, working quickly before it stiffens. Very hot sugar can cause serious burns, so keep children away.

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50 min

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115 min

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75 min

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45 min

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