Good or bad, sugar coal really like it! Here's how to prepare it at home
The befana comes at night with her shoes all broken … and with a load of coal for children who have been naughty. But the sugar coal can it be considered a true punishment?
Who is at the Befana
The name Befana derives from EpiphanyIn fact, this old woman flies aboard a broom on the night of the Epiphany to bring small gifts to good children and coal to those who have not behaved well. She looks like a witch and is usually dressed in clothes soiled with ash because she is carrying coal and goes from the fireplaces to fill the wool socks hanging in the house.
La Befana is known in Italy and not in the rest of the world and as a popular saying "all parties take away".
Receiving a bag of coal from Befana is not so bad if the coal is sweet, sugary and flavored with liquorice.
In fact, for some time the dreadful old woman who enters our homes on the night of 6 January is no longer so bad and instead of real coal now fills the socks of all children with sweet delicacies, such as sweet coal.
Preparing it at home is very simple. Here is the recipe.
Sweet coal recipe
Prepare a frosting with a firmly whipped egg whites, 200 grams of granulated sugar, a tablespoon of pure alcohol for food use (or vodka), 100 grams of powdered sugar and a few drops of black coloring.
Separately pour 300 gr of caster sugar into a not very large saucepan and cover with water. Stir and cook for about 10 minutes until the syrup starts to caramelize and becomes golden. The sugar must reach a temperature of 141 °. If you have a kitchen thermometer use it.
Lower the heat and pour in the syrup all the icing, stirring quickly to incorporate it.
Pour the mixture into a non-stick mold and gently crush it to give it a shape.
Let it cool and then break it into irregular pieces.
Food colors and flavors
The black food color is not easily found except in stores that sell pastry products. Alternatively you can do this by mixing other colors, yellow, red and blue. You will get, however, a very dark brown and not a perfect black.
If the children were naughty but not too much, you can also prepare a colored charcoal by choosing colors other than black. Purple or green, for example.
You can also aromatize the charcoal with a few drops of liquorice or mint flavor.
This recipe has already been read 234 times!