Crumbling Violet

Sometime during his recent trip, jmaynard bought a Violet Crumble bar or two. When he mentioned this on IRC it got a few positive responses and I was curious as to what this strange and unique thing was. I knew there were no violets or violet flavor or violet color (save perhaps for the wrapper color) involved. Well, he brought a bar home with him. And this noon I sampled it.

Guess what? I've had it before! Only it wasn't in a fancy violet wrapper, nor as regularly shaped, nor known by that name. See, for years and years and years the family would have this Christmas candy, around - wouldn't you know it - Christmastime. It was a somewhat crystalline thing, like a solidified froth of tiny bubbles, coated in chocolate. The pieces were irregularly shaped, like a batch had been made, and shattered, then the resulting pieces coated. These would be in a container made of thin plastic, or more often, on a foam tray and covered in a plastic wrap and sold by weight, like hamburger.

Jay was surprised by the name I used. And when I asked at work, I got mixed results. Those from Minnesota, if they knew of the candy at all, simply called it "Christmas candy." Those from Wisconsin knew the name I had always heard it called, "Angel food." One guy did recall he had seen the stuff, labelled as angel food, for sale at one of the stores in town around Christmastime, so it isn't purely a Wisconsin thing.

To me, that is what angel food is. If you say "angel food," I'll think of the candy. If you want me to think of cake, you'd best say it's "angel food cake" to avoid confusion. Violet Crumble is good, but it's not the unique thing that was implied. Not to me, anyway. I suppose a Violet Crumble is more consistent than angel food, which can have considerable variation in density, but that's all it is: angel food candy. Here's a recipe for the stuff. Or just google for "angel food candy," not cake.

I think I'll have to make a point of getting some angel food around Christmastime this year.