Copycat recipes are often some of my favorite recipes to make and this quick and this vegan dalgona candy takes less than 5 minutes to make. Although they only contain TWO ingredients, they taste absolutely amazing. You all need to try this delicious South Korean snack!
Popularized by the Netflix series 'Squid Game', these dalgonas, or Ppopgi in Korean, taste like sweet vegan honeycomb toffee and make a great comfort treat.
They're crispy and crunchy at the same time, as well as having a strong caramelized taste all the way through. As they're on popsicle sticks, these goodies are great for kids too.
For more recipes that only contain a few ingredients, I recommend that you also try my vegan chocolate orange macadamia nut clusters, vegan chocolate peanut butter cups and vegan coconut whipped cream recipes. Sometimes the simpler ones are the best!
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Why You'll Love This Candy
- Easy To Make - Although, you need to work quick, this will be one of the easier recipes you've made in your life. It only requires two ingredients and the candy can be ready within five minutes, which is great.
- Delicious Texture - If you haven't tried it before, it's quite difficult to describe the taste of a dalgona. It's somewhere between a toffee, a caramel and a lollipop. If you love all three of those, I'm certain that you will enjoy these easy treats too.
- A Recipe From Around The World - I enjoy trying foods from different countries. I've made vegan Danish pastries, I've made Spanish vegan churros and even a vegan Argentinian chocotorta. When it comes to international recipes, there's definitely more to come.
- Allergy Friendly & Plant Based - This vegan dalgona candy recipe is entirely vegan, gluten free and dairy free.
Ingredient Notes
- Granulated sugar - I personally think this type of sugar works the best for this recipe during the caramelization process but you can totally use brown sugar (Demerara) if you prefer for this recipe. It's completely your choice and both outcomes will be delicious.
- Baking soda - This is the 'magical' ingredient when making South Korean dalgonas. It creates a chemical reaction when mixed into the sugar. When it sets it becomes 'toffee' like. We're used to baking soda working it's magic in cake recipes such as, my vegan banana pudding poke cake and vegan mascarpone chocolate sheet cake bars but this takes it to a whole new level!
See recipe card for full information on individual ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions & Variations
- Use brown sugar. For this recipe, you can use granulated sugar and brown sugar interchangeably. I always opt for granulated sugar but if you don't have any or you simply prefer brown sugar, it's a great substitute. There may be slight differences in outcome but they are hardly noticeable. I made my vegan brown sugar cereal pancakes with Demerara sugar because it contains more minerals than white sugar and is slightly healthier.
- If you wish, you can also change the size of your Dalgonas. You can make them bigger by doubling the recipe amounts. However, I also suggest that you use a large popsicle stick if you decide to increase the size. I haven't tested any other sizes and I don't recommend making the candy any smaller.
How To Make Dalgona Candy
For the full method, please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
1: Line a large baking tray with parchment paper.
2: Add some sugar to a ladle. Place over the heat.
3: Melt the sugar.
4: Add some baking soda to create a frothy mixture.
5: Pour the mixture onto the lined baking tray.
6: Press a popsicle stick into the toffee before it sets.
7: As soon as you press the popsicle stick into the toffee, flatten it with a hotteok press.
8: Immediately after flattening, press a shape into the center, creating an indentation (before it gets too soft).
Expert Tips
Work quickly and get your timings right - This recipe requires you to work quickly. As soon as you have combined the baking soda and the sugar, the mixture will become foamy. When you see this reaction taking place, immediately pour the mixture onto the baking sheet and press in your popsicle stick. It will set VERY fast.
After that, also press the dalgona down before it sets and press the shape into the center. Make sure that you have all your tools and equipment at hand so that you can be successul with your timings.
Make sure you have the correct equipment & tools - There are many important pieces of equipment that you will need to make this vegan dalgona candy are as follows: Metal/wooden chopsticks or skewers (for stirring the sugar), stainless steel ladle, medium cookie cutter shape, Hotteok press (for flattening the dalgona) & popsicle sticks.
Cleaning hardened toffee - The Dalgona candy mixture is very sticky and will set very quickly on the chopsticks and ladle, seemingly making things difficult to clean afterwards. Don't worry, it's really easy. Just run them under warm water and will eventually peel off things.
Take on the dalgona challenge -
In South Korea, children compete in a game to save the shape in the centre of their dalgona candy. They have to patiently eat around the shape carefully, which is quite challenging.
Some people prefer to use tools such as clean pins to complete the challenge in a more intricate fashion. Children may be rewarded with a prize or even another dalgona if they are successful in breaking away the outer pieces of the candy.
Recipe FAQs
You can. However I highly recommend that you make these one at a time. This is because this recipe requires you to work fast. For example, you may not have enough time to flatten multiple dalgonas before they harden.
Brown sugar can also be used for these treats.
It resembles crispy toffee. Is it basically hardened, caramelized sugar.
Dalgona candy is a treat that is popular in South Korea and especially with children, made by mixing sugar with baking soda which creates a frothy mixture that sets into toffee. The texture of it has many similarities to honeycomb toffee which isn't vegan.
Store this vegan dalgona candy inside an airtight container for up to 2 months inside the freezer or for 3 days inside the fridge.
More Easy Vegan Treats That You Will Love
If you tried this Vegan Dalgona Candy Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below. I love hearing from you!
South Korean Dalgona Honeycomb Toffee Candy (2-Ingredients + Vegan)
Ingredients
For each dalgona:
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- Pinch 1/16 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
Make the dalgonas:
- Line a large baking sheet with non-stick parchment paper. Set aside. Alternatively use a non-stick baking sheet.
- Add the granulated sugar to a deep, large metal ladle. Hold your ladle over a medium-low heat. Continuously stir the sugar with a large skewer or a chopstick as it begins to melt over the heat, making sure that it doesn’t stick. If the sugar begins to smoke, lift the ladle a couple inches higher.
- When your sugar has melted and there are no lumps let it cool for a moment. While the ladle is off the heat, mix in the baking soda.
- Place the ladle over the heat again and mix the sugar/baking soda mixture with the skewer, quickly until the baking soda fully dissolves into it. The colour will become a light brown and it with be foamy.
- Pour the dalgona candy mixture from the ladle onto the non-stick baking sheet, forming a round shape. Place a popsicle stick into the mixture while it is still wet.
- Allow the dalgona to cool for roughly 15-25 seconds. Give the edge a nudge with your finger to make sure that it isn’t stuck this press it down further with a 12cm diameter (4.7 inches) Hotteok hand presser for 5 seconds to a thickness that you like.
- Use a smaller cookie cutter to press a shape into the center of your dalgona, firmly. Don’t press it all the way through. You just want there to be a deep imprint.
- Repeat this whole process, if you’d like more dalgonas.
Video
Notes
- This recipe requires you to work quickly. As soon as you have combined the baking soda and the sugar, the mixture will become foamy. When you see this reaction taking place, immediately pour the mixture onto the baking sheet and press in your popsicle stick. It will set VERY fast. After that, also press the dalgona down before it sets and press the shape into the center. Make sure that you have all your tools and equipment at hand so that you can be successul with your timings.
- There are many important pieces of equipment that you will need to make this vegan dalgona candy are as follows: Metal/wooden chopsticks or skewers (for stirring the sugar), stainless steel ladle, medium cookie cutter shape, Hotteok press (for flattening the dalgona) & popsicle sticks.
- The Dalgona candy mixture is very sticky and will set very quickly on the chopsticks and ladle, seemingly making things difficult to clean afterwards. Don't worry, it's really easy. Just run them under warm water and will eventually peel off things.
- In South Korea, children compete in a game to save the shape in the centre of their dalgona candy. They have to patiently eat around the shape carefully, which is quite challenging. Some people prefer to use tools such as clean pins to complete the challenge in a more intricate fashion. Children may be rewarded with a prize or even another dalgona if they are successful in breaking away the outer pieces of the candy.
Tyler says
Just like the ones in Squid Game! I wanted to try them when the show was on but never got round to it. These taste amazing 😍
DJ says
Thank you!