From the L.A. Times recipe archive: Honeycomb candy
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Gloria recently sent me the following Culinary SOS request from our recipe archive:
I need a recipe for Honey Comb Candy. I had a recipe a long time ago that came out in the LA Times and I misplaced it. ... I would appreciate it so much.
Crunchy and chewy at the same time, honeycomb candy gets its name from the way the leavener (baking soda), added to the cooked sugar as it cools to a hard candy, creates bubbles that give the candy its unique structure. Also called Angel Food Candy, it’s often dipped in chocolate, not only for flavor, but to help preserve it (sugar-based confections such as honeycomb candy can soften and get sticky if left out uncovered for too long -- the chocolate acts as a protective barrier).
This recipe was voted one of our top 10 for 1998:
Every year we ask readers to send recipes for favorite holiday foods -- turkeys or cookies or, this year, candy. C.L. Underwood of Maywood responded with a recipe for Angel Food Candy, also called Honeycomb Candy, which is coated with chocolate. Underwood got the recipe from the magazine Taste of Home, and many tasters in The Times Test Kitchen had made similar candies before. But this is a great version of the candy, which has an airy crunchiness, in part due to the use of baking soda. Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate is recommended to balance the sweetness of the candy underneath.
Enjoy, Gloria! You can find the recipe after the jump below.
Check here for more Culinary SOS recipes. If you have a favorite restaurant recipe you’d like to request, feel free to email me at noelle.carter@latimes.com. I’ll do my best to track it down!
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ANGEL FOOD CANDY (HONEYCOMB CANDY) Active work time: 45 minutes * Total preparation time: 1 1/2 hours
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 pounds semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
* Cook sugar, corn syrup and vinegar in heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves, 3 to 4 minutes. Stop stirring and bring candy to boil. Continue cooking without stirring until candy reaches hard-crack stage (300 to 310 degrees on candy thermometer), about 10 minutes.
* Remove candy from heat and quickly stir in baking soda. Pour into buttered 13-by-9-inch baking pan but do not spread (candy won’t fill pan). Let candy cool.
* Melt chocolate in top of double boiler over simmering water and set aside to cool.
* Break hardened candy into chunks and dip into melted chocolate. Place on wax paper until firm, about 30 minutes, or refrigerate. Store in airtight container.
2 1/2 pounds.
