You only need 2 ingredients to make the iconic Dalgona candy from Squid Game!
I can’t remember the last time I had a birthday party but if I did one right now, it would definitely be a Squid Game themed party, minus the dying. We would compete for the money of course! One of the most iconic games in Squid Game was the dalgona candy game and I just had to make some for me and Mike to try. Spoiler, I lost, guess I’m ded LOL.
What is dalgona candy?
If dalgona candy sounds familiar it’s probably because you might have heard of the viral dalgona coffee sensation last year? Everyone and their grandmas made it! Dalgona candy is an old school Korean honeycomb candy that’s similar to seafoam or honeycomb toffee or the inside of a Crunchie bar. It’s sweet and crunchy and delicious. In Korea, street vendors sell dalgona (also known as ppopgi) stamped with shapes. If you manage to eat around the candy keeping the shape intact, sometimes they give you a free candy! Of course in Squid Game it’s much more deadly.
How make dalgona candy?
Making dalgona is super easy, basically you melt sugar and mix in a bit of baking soda so it foams up. It ends up looking like whipped coffee, which is where dalgona coffee got the name from.
After you stir in the baking soda and it foams up, you pour it out, stamp in a shape and let it cool.
Ingredients
- sugar – sugar, when you heat it up, it turns a lovely golden caramel. You can use white or brown sugar, up to you! Brown sugar will come out much darker.
- baking soda – this is what makes the caramel foamy. Make sure you use baking SODA, not baking powder.
Dalgona tools
- stainless steel ladle
- wooden chopstick
- parchment paper
- a metal flat surface – I used the back of a metal round tin, you can also use a flat metal spatula, or even better, these okonomiyaki spatulas
- cookie cutters
Tips and tricks
I made so many of these, super frustrated that my dalgona kept sticking to the bottom of my flat metal tin. All the recipes on the internet said that you just need to wait 30-40 seconds before pressing but after lifting, the tops would just come off. Finally I decided to lightly oil and sugar the bottom of the tin and YAY, no sticking. I really recommend it if you’re having trouble.
Here are some other tips and tricks I learned along the way.
- Make sure you have all the tools and ingredients on hand: sugar, baking soda, lightly oiled and sugared flat metal surface, a parchment paper or silicon lined baking sheet, a metal spatula, a wooden chopstick, and the cookie cutters.
- You don’t need to stir the sugar too much, especially at first. Let it melt along the edges and the sides until it’s clear and melty, then start stirring. If you stir too early it will take forever for you to melt your sugar.
- Don’t add too much baking soda. It’ll make the candy bitter and it won’t taste good. You only need a very tiny pinch. Just make sure you stir it in really well and it will aerate and puff up the sugar.
- Let the candy cool a tiny bit before pressing it down or it will stick and you will be sad, like me. But even better, lightly oil and sugar the surface and you won’t have any problems with sticking.
- If you’re planning on making more than one (I made so many so I could get them perfect!), bring a pot of water to a boil then turn it off. After you pour out the candy, you can carefully add the ladle to the hot water and the excess candy will just melt right off. Just be careful because it will sizzle and expel a lot of heat.
- To get perfectly round dalgona candy, don’t worry about getting every little bit of candy out. Just use the chopstick to gently help the candy fall out into a blob. I tried using a rubber spatula to try to scrape everything out and ended up with blobs instead of circles.
Hope that helps! It was actually really fun making dalgona after I got the hang of it! It helps that the rejects were tasty. I love honeycomb candy so I snacked on EVERYTHING.
happy dalgona-ing and good luck getting the shapes out!
xoxo steph
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 small pinch baking soda
Instructions
- Gather all your tools and ingredients. Lightly oil and sugar a flat metal spatula. Add the sugar to the stainless steel ladle and hold over medium low heat.
- Let the sugar melt along the edges until it’s clear, then stir with a wooden chopstick, until the sugar is melted and starts to caramelize. The sugar should be clear and lightly amber.
- Move the ladle off the heat and stir in the baking soda, quickly until it starts to foam and turn a light caramel color. Move the ladle between on and off the heat to keep it warm.
- Pour the candy onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Let cool for 10-20 seconds and then press with the sugared spatula to the desired thickness.
- Stamp with a cookie cutter part of the way through. Let cool until firm and crunch and enjoy!
