Light, crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth angel food candy (also called honeycomb or sponge candy) gets an update with an allergy-friendly chocolate coating! This recipe does require a candy thermometer, but don’t let that scare you off. It’s actually much easier than you think, and the results are 100% worth it.
If you walk into any store where I live around the holidays, you can guarantee that a tub of angel food candy will be sitting somewhere near the front entrance. You can even buy it at the local farm and tractor store, ha! But the store bought versions usually contain preservatives, and always contain at least dairy in the chocolate coating.
I had an old recipe sitting in my recipe box (I’m guessing it came from a family member, but the memories are hazy!), but I was too scared to try it for years. I got hung up on the sole fact that I needed a candy thermometer.
Never fear, dear reader! I did some experimenting, and figured out a few tricks that make angel food candy a piece of cake. Or piece of candy.
Tips for Making Delicious Angel Food Candy
- Use a very heavy saucepan. Sugar burns very easily, so the thicker your pan, the better the heat distribution and the less chance for hot spots. I used a 3-quart saucier for my candy, as the curved sides were perfect for stirring and whisking.
- Get comfy. You’re going to be standing and doing a lot of stirring and watching. Use this time to contemplate why on Earth you chose to do this. Remind yourself of the end goal.
- Use a candy thermometer. If you don’t own one, they’re not too expensive and really useful. Get one that has all of the candy stages (hard crack, caramel, etc) marked clearly on the side. Pro tip, attach the candy thermometer to the side of your pan BEFORE you heat it up. Trust me on this one, I KNOW.
- Use a spatula to stir, but use a whisk for adding the baking soda. The spatula will help scrape down the sides of the pot while you dissolve the sugar, while the whisk will help incorporate the baking soda faster at the end. Have your whisk and pre-measured baking soda ready to go before you start boiling the sugar.
- Use a silicone pan liner. If you have a silicone baking sheet liner, this is the time to use it. You don’t even need to grease it, just pour the candy on top to cool! But if you don’t have one, you can grease a regular baking sheet and you’ll be just fine.
- Do not spread the toffee out with a spatula. Let me say that again. DO NOT spread the toffee out with a spatula after pouring it onto the baking sheet. This will pop all of the lovely air bubbles that you just created with the baking soda, and leave you with a very hard, plain toffee. Tasty, but not what we’re going for here.
- Make cleanup easy by cooling the empty pan down, then pouring in hot water from the tap. Let the water sit for at least 30 minutes to dissolve all of the sugar stuck to your pan and candy thermometer, and then scrubbing up is a breeze!
Making Angel Food Candy Allergy-Friendly for You!
As written, this recipe has very few ingredients so there’s not much to swap. You really can’t remove anything from the recipe, or it won’t work as planned. For the chocolate coating, we use Enjoy Life brand dark chocolate morsels and ricemilk chocolate morsels to keep these allergy-friendly. (they’re not sponsoring this post, we just really love their chocolate chips!!) You can use whatever is safe for you and is available in your area.
If you try this recipe, let me know how it turns out!! Did you overcome your fear of the candy thermometer? Share your creations on social media by tagging @coffeetableeats on Instagram or Facebook!
Angel Food Candy
Ingredients
- 1 c. granulated sugar
- 1 c. dark corn syrup
- 1 Tbsp. distilled white vinegar
- 1 Tbsp. baking soda
- 2-3 (9 oz.) bags allergy-friendly chocolate chips
Instructions
- Prep your ingredients and equipment: In a heavy saucepan (at least 3 quart size), combine the granulated sugar, dark corn syrup, and vinegar. Measure out your baking soda (don't add it into the pot yet!), and keep it close by with a whisk for later. Prepare a 9x13" (or bigger) baking sheet by either placing a silicone liner on top or greasing it with cooking spray or vegan margarine.
- Clip your candy thermometer onto the side of the pan, set the pan on the stove, and turn the burner on to medium. Stir the sugar mixture constantly with a spatula, scraping down the sides of the saucepan as needed, until the sugar dissolves. The mixture will go transparent, and if you rub a tiny amount of the mixture between your fingers (do this VERY carefully by removing your spatula for a second and cooling off what's sticking before you touch it), you cannot feel any sugar grains remaining.
- Once the sugar is dissolved, remove your spatula from the pan and boil the sugar without stirring until the candy thermometer reaches 300 degrees Fahrenheit (hard crack stage). This can take anywhere from 5-15 minutes, depending on your stove and your pan. So don't go anywhere, and keep a close eye on it.
- Take the pan off the heat immediately, and now you will have to work very quickly! Remove your candy thermometer from the pan (if necessary) and set aside. Sprinkle the baking soda over the surface of the boiled sugar mixture. Using your whisk, quickly whisk in the baking soda until the candy lightens in color and there are no dark brown streaks. This will foam up quite a bit and look like a science experiment. Pour the mixture immediately onto your prepared baking sheet, as evenly as you can, and DO NOT spread it out with a spatula or any other utensil. Just pour it out and leave it alone so you don't pop any of the air bubbles created by the baking soda.
- Let the sugar mixture cool and harden for at least 30 minutes to one hour. Then break into chunks with your hands (this will be messy, but you can save all of the tiny shards for topping ice cream or stirring into cookies!).
- Melt your chocolate chips by placing them in a microwave safe bowl and cooking for 30 seconds. Stir, then cook for an additional 30 seconds. Stir vigorously, and if necessary put the chips back into the microwave for 10 seconds at a time until they melt thoroughly. Full disclosure, I am terrible at tempering chocolate and there are tons of people out there with great tutorials if you want more info on this!
- Dip the angel food candy chunks into the melted chocolate until fully coated, then place on waxed paper or a silicone baking sheet to cool. In our area, it's cold around the holidays so I place my baking trays out in the garage on a shelf to cool, ha!
- Store in an airtight container and enjoy! This candy is best stored in the refrigerator, because the candy can absorb moisture and get chewy. Ours lasts for several weeks in the cold garage.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1 Amount Per Serving: Calories: 80Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 179mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 0gSugar: 20gProtein: 0gNutrition facts may vary based on the ingredients, swaps, and products used.