Tag: charcoal

Befana sweet charcoal: homemade recipe – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

It’s ugly to look at, but it’s delicious: and it’s the only coal that children will willingly accept from the Befana. And the soft coal, naturally. The one that rewards good children, while for the naughty ones there is only coal… true. This is made of water, sugar, egg white, lemon juice and a few other ingredients and is a delight for the palate. Other typical Epiphany sweets are befanini.

How to make soft charcoal

The very tasty one soft coal It is prepared by heating water and sugar in a saucepan and in the meantime combining egg white, lemon juice and dessert alcohol in a bowl. Subsequently, two spoons of the mixture obtained are added to the previously cooked sugar, the food coloring is added and it is cooked until the charcoal takes on the right porosity. Then it rests for a couple of hours and hides in the sock. Here are all the steps.

Charcoal Sweet Recipe – Italian Cuisine – Italian Cuisine

Ingredients

500 g caster sugar
120 g icing sugar
egg white
lemon juice

Duration: 30 min

Level: Easy

Dose: 600 people

For the sweet charcoal recipe, dissolve the granulated sugar in 250 g of water in a saucepan, mix until it boils and let it continue to boil for 2-3 minutes without stirring. In the meantime, line a pan with triple the volume of granulated sugar with parchment paper.

Separately mix the icing sugar with a spoonful of egg white and a few drops of lemon juice to obtain a smooth glaze. Check the temperature of the granulated sugar syrup with the thermometer: when it has reached 142 ° C, add the glaze, stirring constantly from the center of the saucepan to the edges. In a few seconds the mixture will begin to swell.

Pour it immediately into the pan lined with parchment paper: the volume will double, then collapse crystallizing in a compound similar to rock. Be careful because the sugar, even if it seems cold, is actually very hot inside. Wait 10 minutes, then turn the sugar block onto a sheet of parchment paper and break it into pieces.

Homemade charcoal: yes! – Italian Cuisine

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.