Happy Birthday Canada

"Passion of the Nation" original image by blogger Jessica Borutski

Hello everyone! Happy Canada Day to all you wonderful Canadians out there in the world. It's not only Canada's birthday, though, but also the Quite Chefy blog's birthday! That's right. Ive been doing this blog for a whole year, now, and I think it's definitely helped me to be a better chef by sharing my favourite recipes and tips with all of you lovely people.

A closeup of Crunchie's honeycomb center. Photo from Wikipedia.org

Lately, I've been having a major craving for a Cadbury Crunchie bar. It's a bar of super light and crispy sponge toffee covered in creamy milk chocolate. I used to love the satisfying and slightly squeaky crunch of the toffee, which used to drive my mother bananas. 

They're popular in Canada and the UK, but I've never seen one in Denmark, so, of course, I decided to make my own!

Humidity and Caramel: The Struggle

Where I live in Denmark is pretty darned humid, and for the past few weeks it's been particularly nasty where it almost feels like you can cut the air with a knife. Why does that matter? Well lots of water in the air means there is more water that the candy can absorb again once cooled down, resulting in a spongy or grainy texture.

I'm going to be 100% honest. Caramel is incredibly simple and also incredibly tricky. It's literally just melted sugar, but the variables and temperatures have to be perfect, else you'll just end up with a sticky mess.

Boiling sugar syrup

How pretty does that look? I'm not gonna lie. It took me MANY attempts to achieve this golden perfection because of various factors (mostly humidity and temperature issues). Luckily, I've done all the experimentation so you don't have to worry about it. 

---

Ingredients and Instructions

​2 1/2(625 ml) cups granulated sugar
2/3 (150 ml) cup glucose or corn syrup
1/3 (75 ml) cup water
4 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate)
​2 tsp vanilla

1. In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, add sugar, syrup and water and heat over medium heat while stirring, until sugar is dissolved.
2. Once sugar is dissolved, stop stirring and bring to a boil, occasionally washing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush.
3. While the mixture is boiling, find a large cake pan that's around 3.5 L, or 13 X 9 inches. Line with parchment paper or very well greased foil.
4. Bring mixture up to 149°C (300°F), which is the "hard crack" stage. If you don't own a candy thermometer find a cup or small bowl and fill with cold water. Using a spoon, carefully drip hot syrup into the water. When it hits the water, it should splutter and sound like it's cracking. It will form hard strings in the water instead of a ball. This is the hard crack stage.
5. Remove syrup from heat and carefully stir in vanilla and baking soda. It will quadruple (at least) in size, so a large pan is important. The mixture will turn a darker golden colour as you stir in the bicarbonate. 
6. Carefully pour caramel into prepared cake pan and allow to cool for 1.5 - 2 hours.
7. Crack into pieces and enjoy, or dip into chocolate for something extra special.

Boil sugar syrup until it reaches the hard crack stage.

Instead of a blob in the water, the hard crack stage of sugar produces tiny, fragile sculptures in the cold water.

Make sure you pour your foaming caramel into a very large cake pan, else it can foam over and damage your counters.

Allow your caramel to cool and dry for a couple hours before cracking.

Break into shards to enjoy.

Or dip into chocolate for a tasty treat.

---

Be Careful

Sponge toffee (or honeycomb/cinder toffee) is fun to make and eat, but please be extra careful when working with molten sugar. This stuff is like lava. It sticks to your skin and takes a long time to cool down, meaning it can cause a very serious burn. If you get it on your skin, then run the affected area under cool water (not ice) as soon as possible to cool the sugar down.

Before taking the plunge into making your own caramel, you can also read this great guide entitled "Ten Tips for Making Caramel" by David Lebovitz.

Caramel that's too dark.

Fortunately, sugar is a very cheap ingredient. If you mess it up and burn it, like the one I made above, then just try again. Sugar can be tricky to work with, and practice makes perfect. I'm not sure about perfect, but it took me at least 10 attempts to get the recipe just right. Remember to have fun!

I hope that you all have a wonderful July first no matter where you are in the world. If you like this recipe, then remember to share with your friends. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as QuiteChefy. You can also find a printable and shareable version of this recipehere.