Honeycomb toffee facts for kids
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| Alternative names | Sponge Candy, Sponge toffee, cinder toffee, seafoam, golden crunchers, hokey pokey |
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| Type | Toffee |
| Main ingredients | Brown sugar, corn syrup (or molasses or golden syrup), baking soda |
Honeycomb toffee, sponge toffee, cinder toffee or hokey pokey 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 sponge-like structure is formed while the sugar is liquid, then the toffee sets hard. The candy goes by a variety of names and regional variants.
Owing to its relatively simple recipe and quick preparation time, in some regions it is often made at home, and is a popular recipe for children. It is also made commercially and sold in small blocks, or covered in chocolate, a popular example being the Crunchie bar.
Regional names
Honeycomb toffee is known by a wide variety of names including:
- cinder toffee in Britain "Cinder toffee" is also used to refer to brittle treacle toffee. Yellowman in Northern Ireland is very similar to honeycomb toffee.
- fairy food candy or angel food candy in Wisconsin, United States
- hokey pokey in New Zealand (especially in the Kiwi classic Hokey Pokey ice cream).
- honeycomb in South Africa, Australia, Britain, Ireland, and Ohio, United States
- old fashioned puff in Massachusetts
- puff candy in Scotland
- 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
- sponge toffee ("tire éponge") in Canada
- dalgona (or ppopgi) in Korea
- gulali in Indonesia
In various cultures
Taiwan
In Taiwan, it is called swollen sugar (膨糖, péngtáng or 椪糖, pèngtáng).
China
In China, it is called honeycomb sugar (蜂窩糖;fēngwōtáng). It is said to be a popular type of confectionery among the post-80s in their childhood.
Hungary
In Hungary, it is known as törökméz (Turkish honey) and is commonly sold at town fairs.
New Zealand
Honeycomb toffee is known as hokey pokey in New Zealand. A very popular ice-cream flavour consisting of plain vanilla ice cream with small, solid lumps of honeycomb toffee is also known as hokey pokey. It is also used to make hokey pokey biscuits.
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), and thus can be roughly translated into English as 'baked caramel' or 'grilled caramel'. It is typically hand-made, and often sold by street vendors.
South Korea
| Korean name | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 달고나 |
| Hanja | n/a |
| Revised Romanization | dalgona |
| McCune–Reischauer | talgona |
| Other name | |
| Hangul | 뽑기 |
| Hanja | n/a |
| Revised Romanization | ppopgi |
| McCune–Reischauer | ppopki |
Dalgona (Hangul: 달고나) or ppopgi (Hangul: 뽑기) is a Korean candy made with melted sugar and baking soda. It was a popular street snack in the 1970s and 1980s, and is still eaten as a retro food. It has a different name for each region. When a pinch of baking soda is mixed into melted sugar, the 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. 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. If the trimming is completed successfully without breaking the candy, the consumer receives another free dalgona. Modern cafes in Seoul now serve novel beverages where dalgona is heaped on top of iced tea or coffee, and pastries such as scones. Some cafes also used dalgona to launch desserts such as bingsu (ice dessert) and souffle. Also, In addition, as the stay-at-home culture spread to Covid-19, "Making Dalgona at Home" was popular on various channels on SNS. In fact, the New York Times and the BBC have been making headlines by introducing how to manufacture "K-Dalgona."
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Dalgona on iced tea at a modern Seoul cafe
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Dalgona
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Making dalgona on yeontan (coal briquettes)
