Date I made this recipe:
December 3, 2017 – Party food!
Sweet Confections –
Beautiful Candy to Make at Home by Nina Wanat
Published by LARK
ISBN: 978-1-60059-920-0; copyright 2011
Purchased at Corazon
gift shop, Minneapolis
Recipe: Honeycomb Candy (a/k/a “Angel candy” or
“Angel food candy”) – p. 53. (I also
made Rocky Road Chocolate Bark p. 43)
I think my husband said it best: “Honey, candy-making is not
in your future.”
This year, I thought it would be fun to add some candy into
our annual holiday party offerings mix, thinking to myself “How hard can that
be?”
Turns out candy making is extremely challenging, and by the
time I threw in the towel, I was but a shadow of my former self.
You’d think I would have learned my lesson after burning
myself on hot caramel this spring, but I didn’t, thinking, rather erroneously,
that melting sugar and liquid for these candies was different than melting it
for the caramel. I know, I know, I think
I might have singed my brain at the same time as I burned my hand because the
process for making caramel and other candies is the same!
Earlier that day, I started out by making what I thought was
a simple recipe for “Sour Cream Candied Walnuts” from another cookbook. Four tries later, and just as I was going to
give up, I nailed it. There was much
rejoicing, but my work had just begun.
Next, I tried a recipe for Divinity candy that also seemed
easy until I started to make it and then it became my worst nightmare. The recipe is simple: melt some sugar and boil it until it reaches
the temperature required by the recipe, then incorporate that molten mixture
into some whipped egg whites. For the first time ever, the whipped egg whites
became our kryptonite as they just didn’t turn into the peaks required to turn
this concoction into heavenly, floating clouds.
Nope. Think “nearly-scrambled” eggs. Why they didn’t whip right remains a mystery,
especially given that summer temps usually play havoc with egg whites, not
winter.
After four tries to heat the syrup properly (Sweet Jesus,
that was difficult) and then incorporate the egg whites, I pulled the plug on
this operation, shot the mixture into the garbage and promptly retired this
recipe to the “Don’t Even Think About It” list forevermore!
Feeling whipped but not-yet-defeated, I moved on to the
(allegedly) easy Honeycomb Candy. Sigh.
Folks, it took me three times to get this thing right and what was going
on here anyway? My kitchen turned
suddenly into a disaster zone; maybe burning some sage is in order?
Happily, and jumping ahead, the “Rocky Road Chocolate Bark”
was a snap because all one has to do is melt chocolate and pour it over
marshmallows and almonds. That I can do
and that I did, ta da!
And now back to the Honeycomb
Candy, already in progress.
When I was a kid, we alternated between calling this “Angel
food candy” and “Sponge candy.” These
days, I think “sponge candy” is the most common name for this concoction. At any rate, we purchased this confection
every year and then and now, the pieces were quite huge which is to say high
and airy like an angel food cake. The
trick to getting that height, I believe, is adding more baking soda to the
mixture than called for in most modern day, made-at-home recipes. This honeycomb candy is pretty flat, but the
flavor is still there and that is all that mattered to me.
Still, getting this recipe to work out took some doing
(again!) and four tries later, I finally nailed it and that was a good thing
because my track record thus far was most decidedly NOT noteworthy!
Although I am no candy expert, I think most of these
failures come down to failing to heat the sugar to the right temperature. More than once, it started to burn just as it
reached the required temp. That
irks! Incorporating the other ingredients
is also tricky and I ruined more than one batch because the ingredients didn’t
fold together as expected.
Mostly though, the problem was with the sugar. Candy-making requires a candy thermometer,
and each thermometer contains the heating temperature necessary to achieve
different stages of candy, for example, “soft ball stage,” “hard ball stage”
and the like. Seems pretty simple and I
followed my (my mother’s) candy thermometer directions that called for me to [most
of] the sugar I was using to 250F, i.e. the “soft ball stage.” Not only did it take forever to achieve that
temp, but when it did, it started scorching, the nerve of it!
So, I Googled “candy temperatures” and folks, per Google,
the soft ball stage is 235, not 250, what the heck? No wonder my recipes weren’t turning out. Argh!
I have now purchased a new thermometer with more updated temperatures.
Still, knowing that did not solve my problem because the
directions called for me to heat the sugar until it was “golden,” and “golden”
was not a selection on the thermometer.
This meant we had to guess and we guessed wrong at least twice, damn
it!
The third time around, I thought we got the “golden” part
right, but when we added the baking soda, it all went to hell. Let’s just say that getting that ruined candy
mixture out of a pan (warning, it hardens) requires a LOT of hot water to
loosen it. A LOT. In fact, the only way
I got it all to come out was to add water to the pan, then boil the heck out of
it until it turns back into a syrup that can be poured down the drain.
Finally, we got the sugar right and the baking soda right
and the texture right and our world was right, and we let the mixture settle,
then melted the chocolate, dipped our pieces, and called it a day, huzzah! The result made for a pretty presentation and our guests
oohed and aahed over them which made me feel good, given what I went through to
get these made!
You can make and store these candies a couple days in
advance of serving, but do not store them too long or the honeycomb will start
breaking down into the syrup from whence it came.
As mentioned above, I fared better with the “Rocky Road
Candy,” and would make this again, but no surprise, my “boiling sugar” days are
over! Chocolate, I can melt, but boiling
sugar is beyond my kitchen pay grade.
I must say that I felt vindicated at our party when several
people said how challenging it is to make candy. No argument from me! That said, if you are up for the challenge,
here is the Table of Contents containing options for all kinds of candy:
- Crunchy Candy – toffee, peanut brittle, lollipops, candied apples
- Chewy Candy – caramels, taffy, jellies, nougats
- Silky Candy – fudge, truffles, pralines, marshmallows
- In the Pantry – Vanilla Extract, Candied Citrus Peel, Roasted Nuts, Candied Ginger
Next time around, I wouldn’t mind making some fudge or
truffles as chocolate candies are (usually) not that hard to make. Personally, I don’t think fudge is as
impressive as other candies which is why I opted for the two recipes I made for
the party. Until all this went south, I
thought I’d make a toffee, but that recipe was relegated to the back of the
stack as well.
In conclusion, besides having a good candy thermometer on
hand but you’ll also need a lot of patience.
Patience is required when waiting for sugar to boil because man oh man,
that process is “slower than molasses in January.” Yes, I meant to say that!
If you nail this recipe, you will be mighty chuffed with
yourself as it is delicious. Enjoy!
Honeycomb Candy –
Makes 1 1/2 pounds
¼ cup water
1 cup sugar
¼ cup corn syrup
2 teaspoons baking soda, sifted
2 pounds milk or dark chocolate, tempered, or coating
chocolate (Ann’s Note: “Tempered”
chocolate is made by slowly melting the chocolate to be discussed below.)
To temper chocolate, break chocolate into tiny pieces. Place these chocolate pieces in the top half
of a double boiler and/or a large saucepan or bowl placed over a smaller pan of
boiling/simmering water. The chocolate
should NOT come in contact with the water as it will be ruined. Stir frequently over the boiling/simmering
water until it melts.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix together the water, sugar, and corn syrup in a 2-quart
saucepan without stirring. If
sugar crystals cling to the sides of the pan, dissolve them away with a wet
pastry brush.
Boil over medium-high heat without stirring until the syrup
just turns golden. Add the baking
soda. Stir thoroughly and vigorously
with a heatproof spatula.
Pour onto the parchment paper, and let cool without
disturbing. Once cool, use a long,
serrated knife to cut honeycomb into 2-inch long pieces. (It’s okay if they’re not exactly 2 inches
long.) Holding each piece between your
thumbs and forefinger, dip halfway into the tempered chocolate, letting excess
chocolate drip back into the bowl. Place
on parchment paper to set, and then store in an airtight container.
Ann’s Note: These can be made a couple days in advance of
serving, but if you wait too long to eat them, the sugar will start to break
down and melt. Not that there’s anything
wrong with that, but they are better crunchy!
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