Carbone di Zucchero
The Epifania, on the 6th of January, marks the end of the Italian Christmas holiday season and children celebrate the arrival of i Magi (the three kings), bearing gifts for baby Jesus, and also celebrate La Befana, the kind but ugly witch bringing nice gifts to good children and coal to the naughty ones.
On the night between the 5th and 6th of January, la Befana comes down the chimney, mounted on a broomstick, under the weight of a sack filled to the brim with toys, chocolates and sweets to fill the stockings left hanging up by the children.
In the bottom of her sack there is quite a bit of ash and coal for bambini monelli (naughty children), so a week before the Epiphany, kids start being anxious for the arrival of the Befana and even a bit worried they might find just coal.
However, many of them will be pleasantly surprised as it has now become quite common to include coal made of sugar in the stocking. You can buy this ready in many pastry shops or make it yourself.
And if you do not celebrate la Befana, I think you might find this sweet fun to make even for other occasions such as Halloween parties.
We begin by making the caramel. Use an iron skillet, pour 200 grams of sugar and add a little water, just enough to let the sugar dissolve completely, then bring to a boil until the sugar turns into caramel.
Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form and incorporate the food coloring, 300 grams of white sugar and 200 grams of icing sugar.
Add the egg white mixture to the boiling caramel, stir thoroughly and let it cook few more minutes over a low heat. When it starts getting bigger in volume, remove the mixture from the heat and pour onto a baking tray.
Let it cool down, then cut it into rough pieces and add it to the other candies in the stocking!
