Angel hair is a very popular sweet in Spain, specifically in the Canary Islands, where it is common to make it to fill sweets and trout. Discover how to make it at home with this homemade recipe.
Angel hair candy is made from the gourd called pantana. This squash is also known by other names such as cider squash, candy squash or boba squash as we call it here in the Canary Islands.
The swamp or white squash is not only used to make angel hair candy, but in some regions it is also used as another vegetable, even to make stew, such as milk stew, a typical recipe from the island of La Palma.
The swamp belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family, and is native to America and introduced to Europe from South America. The skin of the bog is much harder and more resistant than the skin of the other pumpkins.
In terms of nutritional properties, they share the same as the other species of pumpkins. For example, it is a food extremely rich in fiber, which helps to satisfy our appetite, prevent constipation and improve intestinal transit.
It also provides vitamins, among which A, E and C stand out, in addition to providing minerals and trace elements such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, phosphorus and iron. It is useful for regulating blood glucose levels and also has an interesting diuretic effect.
Angel hair candy is widely used in confectionery to fill sweets, tarts, tartlets, to fill trout (a typical recipe also in the Canary Islands at Christmas time).
Making angel hair candy is very easy and although you can get industrially made angel hair on the market, you will notice the difference when compared to homemade angel hair candy.
Below we provide the ingredients and the steps to make this delicious sweet.
Homemade Angel Hair Fudge Recipe
Ingredients:
- A swamp gourd.
- Sugar.
- A stick of cinnamon.
- The skin of a lemon.
- A fig leaf (optional).
Preparation:
We washed the swamp well. Without removing the skin, cut it into large pieces. We put the pieces of swamp in a cauldron and put water to cover it.
We cook the pantana with low heat and until it is tender. Once it’s tender, turn off the heat.
We extract the pieces of stewed pantana and with the help of a spoon we remove the strands from the shell and also remove the seeds.
Once all the strands are obtained, we weigh them and according to the weight that has resulted, we add half the weight of sugar.
Put the marsh strands, the sugar, a cinnamon stick, the skin of the lemon, a fig leaf, in a cauldron, and cook the angel hair over low heat, stirring constantly so that the angel hair does not burn.
We will cook until the angel hair acquires a golden color.
The color of the hair candy will vary depending on the time we have it on the fire, the longer it is on the fire, and the darker it will be.
When the angel hair acquires the color that we like the most, we will remove it from the fire.
Let it cool at room temperature. Once cold, we can store it in previously sterilized glass jars, yes, we are going to store it as a preserve.
Angel hair candy keeps well both in the fridge and in the pantry in the jars mentioned above.
We already have our angel hair sweet ready to taste it however we want, filling our favorite sweets, tarts, cocas, puff pastries, trout, fritters and biscuits.
