Kathy McCarthy has one sweet job! She makes candy. Well, not just candy. Kathy, or Cocoa as she prefers to be

called, makes extraordinary, super-delicious, handcrafted, chocolate-coated candy, which she sells at the Sweet Spot in the Savory Spoon Marketplace in Door County, Wisconsin.

Although Cocoa’s specialties include chocolate-drenched toffees (for which she won a blue ribbon at the Arizona state fair), caramels and a divine peanut-butter confection, to me, her pièce de résistance is sponge candy (a crunchy, melt-in-the-mouth delight also know as fairy food, sugar puffs, sea foam and honeycomb).

Cocoa says that she started making sponge candy with her mother when she was a child growing up on a mink ranch in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and has made it happily ever after for her family’s holidays and special events. Today, she makes the candy for other folks’ special occasions as well, selling the sweet  at her chocolate boutique in the Marketplace shop and through mail order.

As generous as she is charming, Cocoa shares her family recipe below. But trust me, when it comes to Cocoa’s candy, one is never enough, so check out the Sweet Spot for more dark, delectable magic. MMmmmmmm.

SPONGE CANDY

Yield: about 1-1/2 pounds candy (about 40 pieces)

Butter to grease pan

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark corn syrup

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 tablespoon baking soda

About 1 pound good dark chocolate (If you are going to temper the chocolate, use a block or bar of very good chocolate, rather than chocolate chips. See note.)

Butter a 9 X 9 X 2-inch pan and set aside.

Combine sugar, corn syrup and vinegar in a large (3-quart), heavy saucepan.  Set pan over medium heat and bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly until sugar completely dissolves. Without stirring, boil mixture until it registers 300°F on a candy thermometer. (At this stage a drizzle of the mixture will separate into brittle threads when dropped into cold water.)  Immediately remove pan from heat, add baking soda and stir quickly until well mixed (the mixture will foam).  Quickly pour mixture into the buttered pan.  Set aside at room temperature to cool completely. When cooled, break candy into chunks.

Melt chocolate (see note). Dip candy chunks in chocolate and set aside at room temperature until the chocolate is firm to the touch.

NOTE:  MELTING CHOCOLATE You can melt chocolate in a saucepan over low heat, in the top of a double boiler over simmering water, or in a microwave set on defrost, but if you are using a fine couverture chocolate, a more professional approach would be, before dipping the candy, to “temper” the chocolate (which gives it a sheen and keeps the surface of the chocolate from appearing mottled or matted).

TO TEMPER ONE POUND OF GOOD DARK CHOCOLATE:

1. Chop chocolate bar or block into chunks.

2. Put 2/3 of the chucks in the top of a double boiler set over simmering water.

3. Attach an instant-read thermometer to the side of the boiler.

4. Stirring gently with a rubber spatula, heat chocolate until it is completely melted and at a temperature ranging between 105°F and no more than 115°F.

5. Immediately remove top of boiler with melted chocolate from the heat. Dry bottom of pan. Set on heatproof surface. Add remaining unmelted 1/3 chopped chocolate to melted chocolate and stir gently, with a rubber spatula, to melt the new chocolate and drop the temperature of melted chocolate to 88°F. (If temperature drops below 84°F you can remove any unmelted chocolate chunks from the melted and set aside for another use, and then set the melted chocolate over warm water and raise its temperature to 88°F.)  Keep melted chocolate at temperature between 86°F to 88°F while dipping the candy.