Carbone della Befana – Sweet Coal  Happy Epiphany! Jan 6th

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

Ingredients:

• 1 egg white

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

• 1 1/2-2 tsp. black gel food coloring

• 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

• 3 cups granulated sugar

• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

1. Whisk together 1 cup of the powdered sugar along with the remaining ingredients in a bowl

2. Whisk in the remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar. The mixture should be very stiff as you whisk. If needed add a little more powdered sugar until consistency is reached.

3. Line a heat-proof pan with parchment paper

4. Combine water and sugar in a large non-stick saucepan and mix together

5. Insert a candy thermometer and let the mixture cook until it reaches 258-260F (126° C) degrees. When it’s close to the 250F (120° C) degree mark, the mixture may begin to lightly brown from cooking, it should still be grainy.

6. When reaching 258-260F degrees, add the black egg white/powdered sugar mixture and stir

7. When thoroughly mixed, pour into the prepared pan and let it harden and dry. Then break it apart into big pieces (you might need a hammer… )