Cinder Toffee!

Cinder Toffee is amazing, simple and great fun! It reminds me of trips to the fair and Beamish. Lots of people of asked me how to make it after they tried it recently, so here it is.

Ingredients
1/2 Can of Golden Syrup
500 g of sugar (either granulated or caster)
100mls of waters
Splash of white wine vinegar
(any is fine, but I use white wine)

1 tspb bicarbonate of soda
A little oil

Equipment
Saucepan
Sugar thermometer
Baking Tray (deep sided)
Baking/ greaseproof Paper

Info:

The vinegar is to the give the bicarb a bit of a kick, remember the science experiment as a kid when you mixed the bicarb and the vinegar and it went everywhere, well Cinder Toffee is just that, but with some boiling sugar thrown in to liven things up a bit.

I use a sugar thermometer to check my temperature but if you don't have one, you can check to see if it is hot enough by getting a small amount on a spoon and dripping it into a glass of cold water. If it is still soft and flexible, then keep boiling away, but its it goes hard and snaps then it's ready to go.

Method

• Put the golden syrup, sugar, water and vinegar into the saucepan and bring to the boil. Keep boiling until you reach 150 degrees.

• When this is boiling, line the baking tray with the baking paper and grease it.If you don't have a deep baking tray use tin foil under your baking paper to give it some structure, just to build up a bit of a wall so that the mix doesn't spill out.
  

• When the mix is hot enough, hold the tablespoon of bicarb in the hand you are not going to whisk with.

You need to be quick for the next bit so be on your toes.

• Tip in the bicarb and whisk like hell. It will try to get out of the pan so whisk and pour into the baking tray at the same time.
  

• Leave it to cool before touching it, I know it looks tempting, but its not worth the burns on your finger tips (also you will burst the bubbles inside and it wont look as cool)
  

You can now either, wait until it is half cooled, and then cut it into squares, but that's no fun. Let it completely cool, peel off the baking paper turn it on an angle on the baking tray and smash through it. Store in an airtight container and in a cool place!

Have fun and let me know how it goes for you (include photos) :D