Tuesday, May 01, 2007

The Sock Yarn goes to.....

....Mariko. Congratulations! Please email me at oiyi.yau (AT) gmail (DOT) com (change the words at and dot with the appropriate symbols) with your address info, so I can send you your Prize. Thank you all for playing along and celebrating my blogiversary with me. Let's hope next year will bring bigger and betters things!

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My eye still has that blood splotch, but it is much smaller. It had remained unchanged until Sunday. Not sure if all of you were brave enough to click on the photo of my eye in the last post. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't.

We went to Long Island on Saturday to shop and the cashier at Target didn't try to hide her surprise when she saw my face. She literally did a double take. I was pretty embarrassed. I tried to keep my sunglasses on during most of the day, but I took them off when I went into stores. For the most part, it wasn't too bad. People stared but kept it subtle. At the restaurant we ate at that night, the waiter didn't even flinch when he took my order. I think the shocking thing is that it's blood red, well cause it is blood. I look like I have a bloody eye. If both my eyes had hemorrhaged, I would be perfect for a horror movie. Now, I am worried every time I sneeze or cough too much.

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Making Sponge Candy

I had never heard of Sponge Candy until I read it on Kelp's blog. She told me that it's very popular in Upstate New York and her mom makes it from a old family recipe. I was intrigued and decided to do a little research on the internet. Apparently, it's from Buffalo, NY and the stores that sell it online are located in Buffalo.

Having never made candy except for chocolate truffles and fudge, I really wanted to try making it myself. There were a lot of recipes online and all the recipes required only 4 ingredients. Most called for dark corn syrup, but I only had light. I finally found a recipe that used light corn syrup, but you can use either and it should be fine.

It was pretty simple to make. You spend most of your time waiting for the mixture to reach 300 degrees and then add the baking soda, stir and then pour. I poured mine into a rimmed cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

The texture is so hard to explain. It's very light and airy. When you break it, it ends up in shards. At first bite, you get a crunch and then it melts in your mouth. Quite interesting! While I thought the candy was okay on it's own, enrobing the candy in dark chocolate brought it to another level. It is absolutely fantastic with chocolate. I highly recommend that you dip them in dark chocolate.

Here it is naked and undipped. This is the recipe I used. Make sure to use a deep pot because it puffs up and triples in volume when you add the baking soda. Have fun and be careful with the hot sugar mixture.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is what we Brits call cinder toffee, and it's meant to be eaten on Bonfire night but it's great all year round!!! It's also available coated in chocolate in the form of a Cadbury's Crunchie. I wish you hadn't posted the recipe - I have eaten far too many of these recently ;-)

Anonymous said...

thats choc coated honeycomb - in Australia - also in the above mentioned crunchie and in the smoother violet crumble - which I understand you cant get there, I sent some over in a swap - find an aussie and do a swap get the violet crumble and tim tams - they are heaven.
But I digress, your post is making me hungry and now I think Im goingto have to make some honeycomb, my boys love the explosion bit. Hoping your eye gets fully better soon.

schrodinger said...

I was thinking the same thing... Crunchies!! Thanks for the recipe (thankfully I don't have a cooking thermometer). Glad the bloody eye is getting better.

Julie said...

The candy looks delicious! Perhaps I'll give it a go. I'm a sucker for old-fashioned candies. You do that same baking soda trick to a lesser extent when you make pralines.

I hope the eye clears up soon. I know it seems to take forever. I'm just about rid of some bloody spots in my fingernails where they got slammed in the door. Bloggers were spared photos since it was a friend who did it and I didn't want her to feel worse than she already did. I'm just glad I didn't lose any nails on that one though one of them did separate in a small patch. That grew out right along with the spots.

Anonymous said...

Sorry about the eye. It does take forever to heal. Keep those sunglasses handy!

And I haven't had sponge candy in forever! Thanks for posting the link to the recipe.

Unknown said...

Mmm.. I love toffee candies! I may have to try this... Although I do have cousins in Buffalo.. maybe they'll be kind enough to send me some..

Stephanie said...

Thanks for the recipe. My grandma used to buy me this candy from a candy shop when I was a kid, so perhaps I'll endeavor to make her some of the homemade variety. When I lived in England, I think I gained 10 pounds just from the Cadbury version. Yummy!

emily jan said...

wow, you made your own homemade Crunchie! mmmmmm…

Hey I have a question for you – your email link seems to not be working, and there was something I wanted to forward to you which I thought you'd find interesting, as a prolific knitter who also takes beautiful photos of your work… my email is ejfishgirl@yahoo.com. Would you send me an email so I have your address? ; ) ej

Anonymous said...

You really did make the sponge candy! Your photos of it are great - I'm definitely going to direct people this-a-way to check them out. It's interesting to hear what it's called in different areas, too.

Anonymous said...

If this actually tastes like a Crunchie I'll be in heaven! Just think- Crunchies with even better chocolate.

flanthrower said...

Yum! Can't wait to try it.

Anonymous said...

Great to hear that your eye is better - hopefully it'll be back to normal very, very soon!
And my gosh, these goodies... my stomach's been howling out loud when I/it saw these pics! Yummy!

Anonymous said...

What an interesting combo: Scrummy candy and bloody eyeballs! I better go check my calendar since it feels like Halloween. ;)

My MIL had this happen to her eye and it was a little unsettling to look at.

Joanna said...

Oh my gosh. Doesn't cadbury's make something like that? I used to eat it as a child. Now I'm going to have to try that recipe.