A Vegan Treat: Sponge Candy

Today was a girls' day out with my mom, and after having some awesome Indian food at Tandoori's we decided to try making some sponge candy. It was surprisingly easy (with the help of a good candy thermometer) and turned out delicous. So delicious, in fact, that there's none left to photograph. (Sorry.)

You need:

• 1 c sugar
• 1 c corn syrup
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tbsp baking soda (measure ahead of time and smoosh out the lumps)


Grease a jelly roll pan really well with vegetable shortening. Set it aside. In a heavy-bottomed five-quart saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and vinegar and heat without stirring until hard crack stage (300 F). This is where the good candy thermometer comes in - we used a digital one, as we found our old analog one didn't measure the temparature fast enough. If it gets too hot, it won't turn out.

As soon as it's up to temparature, remove the mixture from heat and stir in the baking soda. The candy will foam right up. Pour it into the prepared jelly roll pan -- it will spread on its own, so you don't need to worry about spreading it -- and set it aside to cool.

When the sponge candy is cool (it will be hard), break it into pieces and melt some chocolate chips or dark melting chocolate. Dip the sponge candy pieces in, coat them, and set them on some wax paper or parchment to cool. Enjoy!

This is really easy to clean up, too -- the sponge candy dissolves in warm water just like it melts in your mouth.