What it is
A pastel disc of edible starch paper, two thin shells fused together, filled with fizzy sherbet. The paper melts on the tongue, then the sherbet fizzes. There is barely any sweet there at all, which is exactly why they are addictive.
Taste
Where it comes from
Flying saucers were invented in Antwerp in the early 1950s by Belgica, a company that made communion wafers. When the church ruled that wafers had to be made on consecrated ground, Belgica was left with wafer making machinery and no customers, so it used the same process to make hollow shells and filled them with sherbet. They reached Britain in the 1960s, where the space race and a national appetite for science fiction did the rest. They are now a registered traditional product of Flanders, and Astra Sweets, who bought Belgica, still make them.
What it's made of
Two thin shells of starch paper, made from maize starch, sealed together around a filling of sugar, dextrose and food acids. Nothing is baked, the shells are pressed.
Ingredients and allergens
Ingredients
Sugar, maize starch, water, acids (E330, E334), dextrose, acidity regulators (E331, E500), colours (E100, E132, E162)
Allergens
No allergens in the ingredients
