At any point during yourSquid Game binge, did you think to yourself: “I could do that”? No, neither did we.
But if you’ve ever fancied giving one of the games a go, the dalgona challenge is probably the most fun (so long as your life isn’t on the line).
In episode three of Squid Game the contestants have to carve a shape out of a piece of hard candy. If they were able to cut around the shape without any bits of it breaking off, they went through to the next round. If not, they were “eliminated”.
YouTube chef emmymade has shared a quick and easy recipe to make dalgona, or ppopgi, so you can try the candy challenge for yourself.
All you need is a metal ladle, a chopstick, oiled parchment paper, granulated sugar, and a tiny pinch of baking soda.
Emmy melted the sugar over a low heat, and warned her viewers that sugar is very easily burnt. After a minute, the sugar was already starting to caramelise. Once all the sugar was melted, she added a pinch of baking soda and stirred.
She immediately poured the mixture onto a piece of oiled parchment paper before gently flattening it into a disk shape with a measuring spoon. While it was still warm, she used a circle cookie-cutter to create an outline in the centre.
To make it even more authentic to the Squid Game challenge, she placed the sweet in the lid of a mason jar before giving the dalgona game a go herself.
If you don’t fancy eating all the candy at once, she suggests saving shavings of the honeycomb to sprinkle on top of a glass of milk, or to stir into a hot cup of coffee.
The real stars of the show gave the game a go too as they were interviewed by The Swoon.
If you don’t fancy making it yourself but still want to sample the sweet at some point, Glasgow’s Kcal Kitchen is serving pancakes topped with a Squid Game honeycomb disk. Diners must extract the shape from the honeycomb without damaging the design to win a free meal.
As it’s now officially Netflix’s biggest ever launch, we’re sure this is only the start to all the Squid Game-inspired food we could be seeing in the coming months.
Some people have taken their love of Squid Game a step further by organising copycat competitions, but not all of them are legitimate.
