Introduction: 碰糖/Honeycomb Toffee Candy Bricks
As you add baking soda to melted sugar, you will see a chemical reaction, in witch the sugar turns to foam and triples in volume. The intent of the project is to mold the results in order to construct from the bricks.
Supplies
Materials:
-Baking paper
-Cardboard
-Stapler & Staples
Ingredient ( 4 bricks ):
-Sugar 85 g
-Baking Soda 2 1/2 teaspoon
-Water
Other recipes add maltose and cream of tartar however, i use the street food recipe as i don't have a thermometer, and lockdown has limited the resources available around me.
The amount is meant to produce only 4 bricks, i recommend starting with that ratio to familiarise with the toffee preparation. And add more as you get confortable.
Step 1:
Step 2: Mold
For a 2 to 4 cm big brick, make a pattern. The heigh of the box should be at least 4 cm as the toffee can rise up to four times its original size.
Step 3:
Cut the cardboard and baking paper, fold them together, with the backing paper on the inside and staple.
Step 4: Cooking the Toffee
What to watch out for:
- Adding water to sugar can cause crystals to form as it is cooked, which would enable the foam to form.
Cream of tartar is used to limit the crystallisation.
- The process is fast so you have to stay by it as it is cooking, to avoid burning the sugar, or overcooking it.
I only used sugar, baking powder and a little bit of water. For other recipes feel free to look online for the many great different ways of making honeycomb toffee.
Step 5:
Toffee Preparation:
- Rince the bottom of a pan, the moist bottom avoids risk of burning the sugar.
- Spray or drip some water on the sugar so it is moist but not soaked.
- Melt the sugar on high heat first. As bubbles form turn to medium. (No mixing until the baking soda!)
-Once it is completely melted, pay attentions, the bubbles should start to form more slowly. When it does, poke the mixture with a stick. Drops should fall from the tip. The sugar is ready when the drops are not too runny and start detaching more slowly from the stick. ( If you have a thermometer it is ready as it reaches the temperature of 300 degree celsius )
- Remove from the stove
- Add the baking soda
- Quickly mix together
- Pour ( 1 cm per mold ) as soon as it is mixed, it should start rising right away so speed is of the essence.
Step 6:
As you can see there are many different colours and consistency you can get from slight variations of the recipe. I am not skilled at cooking or precision work but it was fun to experiments and get so many different result in one afternoon. I am looking for the perfect combination to make larger bricks, for sculpture.
I couldn't film the puffing up reaction, but i promise its quite impressive!