Nashville chef Michael Hanna has a sweet memory from early childhood. His Great Aunt Dorothy would whip up a batch of the Southern confection known as divinity candy, and his grandmother would drop a handful of them in a mug and douse them with Coca-Cola.
“It’s something I’ve always remembered,” says the founder of St. Vito Focacceria in the city’s Gulch neighborhood. “I’d get a sugar high.”
These days Hanna spends most of his time baking sfincione pizza and other Sicilian fare, but he still makes divinity candy floats for his own children, ages one and four. “The divinity dissolves into the Coke float for a gooey, sugary treat,” he says. He follows his great aunt’s recipe for the nougat-like candy—which he shares below—but cautions not to attempt it on a rainy day. “Humidity is an issue.”
He also makes sure to stick with Coca-Cola to achieve the proper flavor. “My grandmother always had those frosty, wide-mouthed, old-fashioned Coke glasses,” he says. “It’s childhood to me.”
