Ah...my first memory of this wonderful sugary treat was when I was only a small child, and making it from the recipe for it in
Carol Vorderman's book
Dirty, Loud, and Brilliant. Melting the sugar and golden syrup together, savouring the smell of the
caramel that arose, then jumping half a mile backwards as my mum threw the
bicarbonate of soda and the whole exploded in sticky orangey goodness. Fun times.
As I mentioned, cinder toffee is made from sugar, golden syrup (or honey) and bicarbonate of soda. Once made, the toffee is hard and crunchy, and resembles the inside of a Crunchie bar. Of course, it can be coated with melted chocolate if you want, just to enhance the fact that you're eating pure sugar. The main thing about cinder toffee, is that it can be made simply and easily at home.
To make cinder toffee, you need:
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 4 tablespoons of golden syrup/honey
- One teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
First of all,
grease up the metal tray you'll be pouring this into. Then, get a saucepan, put it onto medium heat, and melt the sugar and syrup together, stirring all the time to prevent it from burning. The two should
caramelise, giving a thick golden brown syrup.
This is where you need to be careful. Mix the teaspoon of bicarb into the syrup, and stir vigorously (unless you enjoy the taste of chunks of bicarb in your toffee). The result will be that the mixture will quickly bubble up and turn a orange-like colour. Allow this to stop rising, and then pour the toffee into the metal tray, and quickly cover it with
cling film, and store in a cool place. If this is not done, the toffee will quickly deflate, resulting in a
sticky mess welded to the bottom of the pan. Once set, cut into pieces and enjoy the sugariness!
Other serving suggestions include:
- Dip it in chocolate, as mentioned above.
- Crunch it up and mix it in with ice-cream, adding more chocolate if you wish.
- Add flavouring, such as mint or orange extract, whilst stirring in the bicarb.
Thanks to sideways for pointing out a small error in the recipe.
Also, thanks to rootbeer277 for the pointing out of my naff HTML skills.
Finally, a big thanks to Ouroboros for my first ever C!