Honeycomb toffee

Honeycomb Toffee

Alternative names	Sponge toffee, cinder toffee, seafoam, golden crunchers, hokey pokey
Type	Toffee
Main ingredients	Brown sugar, corn syrup (or molasses or golden syrup), baking soda
Cookbook: Honeycomb Toffee  Media: Honeycomb Toffee

A street seller in Asakusa Tokyo offering hand-made karumeyaki

Honeycomb toffee, sponge toffee or cinder toffee is a sugary toffee with a light, rigid, sponge-like texture. Its main ingredients are typically brown sugar, corn syrup (or molasses or golden syrup in the Commonwealth of Nations) and baking soda, sometimes with an acid such as vinegar. The baking soda and acid react to form carbon dioxide which is trapped in the highly viscous mixture. When acid is not used, thermal decomposition of the baking soda releases carbon dioxide. The lattice structure is formed while the sugar is liquid, then the toffee sets hard.

In some regions it is often made at home, and a popular recipe for children. It is also made commercially and sold in small blocks, or covered in chocolate, popular examples being the Crunchie or Violet Crumble bar.

Regional names

Honeycomb toffee is known by a wide variety of names including:

• cinder toffee in Britain^[1] "Cinder toffee" is also used to refer to brittle treacle toffee. Yellowman in Northern Ireland is very similar to honeycomb toffee.
• dalgona (달고나) in South Korea
• fairy food candy or angel food candy in Wisconsin, United States^[2]
• fēngwō-táng (蜂窝糖) in China
• hokey pokey in New Zealand^[3][4][5][6] (especially in the Kiwi classic Hokey Pokey ice cream).
• honeycomb in South Africa, Australia and Britain^[7]
• karume-yaki (カルメ焼き) in Japan
• old fashioned puff in Massachusetts^[8]
• ppopgi (뽑기) in South Korea
• puff candy in Scotland^[9]
• sea foam in Maine, Washington, Oregon, Utah, California and Michigan, United States
• sponge candy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, St. Paul, Minnesota, Western New York, and Northwest Pennsylvania, United States^[10]
• sponge toffee ("tire éponge") in Canada^[11]
• törökméz in Hungary

In various cultures

China

In China it is called 蜂窝糖. It is said to be a popular type of confectionery among the after-80s in their childhood.

Hungary

In Hungary, it is known as törökméz (Turkish honey) and is commonly sold at town fairs.

Japan

The same confection is a traditional sweet in Japan known as karumeyaki (カルメ焼き), a portmanteau of the Portuguese word caramelo (caramel) and the Japanese word yaki (to bake). It is typically hand-made, and often sold by street vendors.

Korea

Dalgona (달고나) or ppopgi (뽑기) is a Korean candy made with melted sugar and baking soda.^[12][13] It was a popular street snack in the 1970s and 1980s, and is still eaten as a retro food.^[14] When a pinch of baking soda is mixed into melted sugar, thermal decomposition of the baking soda releases carbon dioxide, which makes the liquidized sugar puff up, and it becomes a light and crunchy candy once cooled and hardened.^[15] Typically, the creamy beige liquid is poured on a flat surface, pressed flat, and stamped with a patterned mold. Eaters try to trim their way around the outline or picture on the snack without breaking the picture.^[15] If the trimming is completed successfully without breaking the candy, the consumer receives another free dalgona.^[15]

• 
  Dalgona
• 
  Making dalgona on yeontan (coal briquettes)

See also

• List of candies

References