Anyone interested in making Divinity?

gayle-mo

gayle-mo

Well-known member
I got this recipe from my high school Home Ec teacher in 1969. Been making it ever since! Very good candy. Pick a day when it's not humid in your house to make divinity.

Divinity

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup Karo syrup

1/2 cup water

1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

1 tsp vanilla

2 egg whites (room temperature)

Stir water, sugar and syrup in saucepan over high heat until reaches hard ball 252 degrees on candy thermometer. Meanwhile, beat egg whites for 4 minutes. When candy reaches soft ball, slowly pour hot syrup over eggwhites while beating mixture with mixer. Mix well. Add nuts and vanilla and continue to beat, this time

by hand, until mixture begins to lose it's shine and thicken.

Immediately pour into buttered pan (to cut into pieces) OR drop by spoonfull onto waxed paper. (I drop with 2 teaspoons onto waxed paper) Let harden. Keep in airtight tin.

Some people like to tint divinity with food coloring. (red or green for Christmas?) I leave it white. The choice is yours.

 
A question about divinity/seafoam...

My mother made, when I was a kid, a confection with a mint flavor that she called seafoam. However every seafoam recipe I've ever tried is a different candy entirely. Hers was more like divinity than seafoam so I'm thinking perhaps she just flavored it. Have you seen much flavor variety in divinity recipes? I'm tempted to begin experimenting and just wondered if anyone had any ideas.

TIA!

 
Ruth, I have never had that but it would make sense to use some mint flavoring and give it a try

It sounds good! I know divinity is a old fashioned candy. I first remember eating some when a neighbor of my grandmother's brought some over to her one Christmas when I was about 5 in about 1957. It was the best thing I'd ever had!! I was tickled when I was a junior in HS and learned I could make it!

I hope you find what you are looking for!

 
Was your mother's candy tinted or white?

I've been thinking about this a lot since you posted this. I saw a recipe in which you add crushed peppermint candy to divinity. Interesting. If I get around to making divinity this year I'm going to try putting a little mint extract in part to try it. We've had illness in my house the last week so I'm waaaay behind - been taking care of everone for over a week so not sure how much I'll get made.

Everyone loves divinity!

 
Gayle, I honestly remember it as "magic"...

That's the mythic status from my childhood memories talking! I don't recall her tinting it but, she must have, because we knew the difference between the divinity and what she called seafoam. She didn't mix anything in, like candy cane chips, and it had a more ethereal flavor than most mints. Argh, I think it means I need to experiment, and eat the bad batch evidence... *G*

 
NFRC: Yes, that is how I felt when I first tried Divinity, too

It was so light, so sweet, so fluffy! I still remember how it affected me.

So you don't think it was peppermint in your mom's? Maybe it was wintergreen?

Interesting...

 
Ruth, Gayle, there IS a candy called Sea foam that is similar to Divinity (more)

Ruth, what you are remembering is something my Grandmother made every Christmas. My Mom made Divinity but Grandma made Sea Foam.

They are both made pretty much the same way but instead of white sugar, water and corn syrup for Divininty, Sea Foam starts with brown sugar, water, corn syrup and a small amount of vinegar cooked to a soft ball stage. The same egg whites (and I use a pinch of salt to bring out the flavors) are beaten and the syrup gets poured over them in the end. It was very commonplace to tint the candy and also flavor it with mint. I remember we used to also put chocolate chips in at the last minute so there were half-melted chunks of chocolate in our candies.

Where I live it is way too humid to make either of these candies- boo hoo!

 
We used wintergreen in candies too- anise and cinnamon as well (more)

I remember wintergreen used in divinity too. We made hard candy every year- a clear candy, flavored (wintergreen, anise or cinnamon) and tinted (just at the end), boiled to a hard ball stage and poured quickly into a buttered aluminum ice cube tray (without the cube seperator part) and as it cooled, we used a buttered knife to make lines through it so there would be squares when it cooled and we cracked it apart. We made lots of different batches and gave gifts of the different mixes of colors and flavors in glass jars with ribbons. Boy, THAT dates me doesn't it! Sometimes we made hard candy suckers using sticks and in the really early days (just barely 1950s) we used tongue depressers as sticks because my Dad was a Doc and they were readily available.

 
Cathy, would you have that recipe to post, please?

I've heard of seafoam but never made it and since your description sounds just like Ruth is looking for that'd be great!

Thanks for your reply! The mystery is evolving!

 
Sure bring back memories! We never poured into ice cube trays, though..

I made my first batch of hard cinnamon candy and gave it away at Thanksgiving! It bags up so pretty in the newer cellophane goodie bags! I used to make other flavors but only the cinnamon got eaten up so that's what I make.

I started making this in the mid 1960's when I was about 13! ha

I make 3-4 '6 cups of sugar' (big) batches of that each year. My grandson's love it!

I posted my recipe on Gail's this time last year.

FUN to remember all this stuff!
Thx

 
Sure bring back memories! We never poured into ice cube trays, though..

I made my first batch of hard cinnamon candy and gave it away at Thanksgiving! It bags up so pretty in the newer cellophane goodie bags! I used to make other flavors but only the cinnamon got eaten up so that's what I make.

I started making this in the mid 1960's when I was about 13! ha

I make 3-4 '6 cups of sugar' (big) batches of that each year. My grandson's love it!

I posted my recipe on Gail's this time last year.

FUN to remember all this stuff!
Thx

 
Sure- this is from the 1943 printing of The Joy Of Cooking REC: Sea Foam Candy

Sea Foam

Stir over a slow fire until the sugar is dissolved:

3 C light brown sugar
1 C water (or 1/2 C water and 1/2 C light corn syrup)
1 Tbsp vinegar

Cook these ingredients quickly to the soft ball stage 238 degrees.

Whip until stiff: 2 egg whites, 1/8 tsp salt

Pour the syrup over the eggs in a thin stream. Beat them constantly. Place the bowl containing the candy over, not in, boiling water and beat the candy until it is thick and creamy. Add:

1 tsp vanilla
1 C broken nut meats
(CZ note: instead of vanilla add other flavor and some color if wanted- also you can skip the nuts)
Pour the candy onto an oiled platter. Cut into squares while hot.

 
It depends on whether it is oil or extract- less oil, more extract (m)

I think just a few drops of peppermint or wintergreen oil would do it but I would add at least a tsp of mint extract.

 
Thx Cathy! ISO: RUTH - here's your recipe! smileys/smile.gif

Let us know if you try it and if it's what you remember from childhood. OK?

Cathy da queen, not me! smileys/smile.gif

 
(((Thank you both, so very much!)))

I can't wait to experiment with this recipe CathyZ and see if I can recreate that childhood memory. That would be amazing!

Thank you Thank you Thank you both!
and... Happy Holidays!

R.

 
Gosh I love Divinity...here's a recipe with some tips on making it...

Someplace I have the recipe from my Aunt who passed away in her 90's a few years ago. She sent it to us as kids every year at the holidays and we looked so forward to it. I'm not sure if this is her recipe I have saved on my HD or if I got it someplace else. Either way it sounds like her.

This is very much like yours Gayle so I thought I'd post it for the tips FYI. smileys/smile.gif

Divinity Candy

2, 1/2c sugar
2 egg whites beaten extra stiff
1/2c white Kayro Syrup
3/4c water
pinch of salt

Boil sugar, syrup, water, and salt until the mixture forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water (245-248 degrees on candy thermometer.)

Drizzle in a very thin stream into egg whites and beat vigorously until it stands in peaks. Quickly drop onto waxed paper. Top with a cherry or a pecan half.

Tips for Divinity Making:

1. Once your syrup, sugar, water and salt begin to boil, don't stir it!

2. Use a wooden spoon when stirring the candy before it boils.

3. Divinity will turn out better if made on a cold, dry day. If this is not possible, simply remove 2 tablespoons of syrup from the pan and discard. Then drizzle the syrup you have left into the egg whites.

4. If you have a stand up mixer, use it. Also an extra set of hands helps tremendously in spooning onto the waxed paper.

5. If your divinty flops (that is it is glossy and will not stand in peaks) you can use it for cake icing OR you can place your pan of syrup in a skillet of boiling water and cook it while beating it until the mixture looses its gloss.

6. Store divinity in a tightly sealed container.

PS

Who besides me got Divinity at the candy counter when they went to Woolworths as a kid? Mom always got us a small bag if we'd been good!

 
Thank you, Maria! Great tips and I have a couple more I'd forgotten

that our Home Economics teacher, Mrs Lizabell McTaggert, ha!, told us. (1) Make sure you don't leave even a SPECK of egg yolk in the eggwhites when you whip them. (2) Make sure your pan and bowl don't have ANY greasy residue on them. And the third one is one I found out on my own!!
If you are using a old fashioned glass bowl with your stand mixer, DON'T! Trust me on this one!!!
You might learn a very painful lesson like I did when I was 15!!

Happy Divinity Making!

 
Thank you Maria!

I now have the biggest collection of divinity/seafoam recipes to try! Better get hoppin' before the fog rolls in... LOL

 
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