I hate when I can’t figure something out and get it to work.
Failure, failure, failure. That is all my efforts to replicate my favorite candy have added up to—zilch, zero, nothing, except a pan of burnt sugar to clean up. And, yet, I continue to try. If you have ever had sponge candy, you know that the potential gain is greater than the pain (and literally the burns from bubbling hot sugar syrup).
If you’ve never heard of sponge candy, it is best described as burned and aerated sugar dipped in chocolate. Ok, maybe it doesn’t sound so great, but it really truly is. If you know the British candy bar Aero, sponge candy is similar. Where I grew up in Western New York, just outside of Buffalo, you can buy sponge candy everywhere, even at the gas station. It is not exclusively local or even unique to Buffalo, but we do seem to love it. Just about any candy store sells it. I especially looked forward to getting it around the holidays when I was a kid. My mom would buy boxes from our school fundraisers and I would savor the pieces that my sisters rationed out to me by biting off the chocolate from each side and then plopping the burnt sugar hunk in my mouth so it would melt and become syrupy.
I call upon you, dear readers, to see if you have the handy hint that I just don’t seem to have mastered in all my attempts. The interior of the candy—the sponge part—is made by heating a sugar mixture and then causing a chemical reaction using vinegar and baking soda to “aerate” the sugar and as it cools it becomes solid. I have tried many recipes and achieved aeration, only for the sponge to “fall” and become dense and hard (too hard to eat, and one last week, even get it out of the pan, which I ended up throwing away). I have scoured the web and really made this a huge research project, but to no avail. Anybody have some experience with this? This Buffalo-gal living in Minnesota would love to know.
By the way, my husband took pity on me and ordered me two pounds of sponge candy from a candy maker in Buffalo, Bella Mia Chocolate Shop, since he knew I wanted some so badly. I guess I will share some with him. Help me out talented readers! (Thanks in advance!)
Sponge candy is sometimes known by some other names: molasses puffs, honeycomb, and seafoam...have you had any of these? Tell me about it.