Surprisingly Easy Sponge Toffee Recipe–Dairy Free

One day my husband suggested we try to make sponge toffee (think the inside of a crunchie bar. Neither of us had much experience making candy and we expected the process to be difficult.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s easy and quick to make and dairy free to boot. It’s also a pretty impressive looking science experiment to do with the kids. The candy is too hot for little kids to help with during the reaction, but older kids will love helping and younger kids will still be impressed.

Sponge Toffee Recipe

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup corn syrup
• 1/3 cup water
• 4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Grease and line a metal cake pan we used wax paper, but greased parchment paper is often recommended. (Do not be tempted to use a glass pan, you want something that has some bend to it).
2. Get your baking soda and vanilla ready.
3. Stir sugar, corn syrup and water in a 12 cup pot over medium heat until sugar dissolves.
4. Put in a candy thermometer. Do not stir while you wait for it to come to a boil.
5. When the temperature reaches 300F (hard crack stage) remove it from heat.
6. Quickly whisk in the baking soda. This will cause the mixture to bubble up (you’ll want your kids who are not actively helping to stay back – it’s hot!)
7. Whisk in the vanilla.
8. Immediately pour into the prepared pan. Let it cool in the pan for about 2 hours. The mixture may be kind of uneven on top but resist the urge to smooth it out, that will pop the air bubbles.
9. Break it into pieces and enjoy!