Prep Time : 15 Minutes | Cook Time : 10 Minutes | Total Time : 30 Minutes | Difficulty : Moderate
As you may have read, I am a little bit obsessed with honey and this week we are putting the honey back in honeycomb! Hokey Pokey as it’s known down here in NZ is usually made with sugar and golden syrup and has a quite distinctive flavour. Honey is pretty much a sugar syrup right? So why can’t we make delicious actually honey-comb? Well the answer is obviously that we totally can! This is a really easy candy to make and requires no thermometer (yay!). Did I mention it takes no time at all to make?
I find this honey version much lighter and airier than the golden syrup version and there are a couple of tricks to making that happen. Make sure you dissolve the sugar completely at a low heat before boiling the syrup and when the baking soda goes in at the end mix it as little as you can get away with. C’mon, let’s make some candy!
Grease a large baking sheet with a little vegetable oil or line it with a silpat or a similar silicone sheet. Set aside nearby. Sift the cinnamon and baking soda into a small bowl. This sounds silly but lumps in the baking soda make it harder to mix in at the end and can leave you with little pockets of soda in the finished honeycomb.
Put all the other ingredients into a large heavy bottomed saucepan – at least 2 and 1/2 litres in size. Over a low heat melt all the ingredients together, stirring all the time. Be patient – taking time now will make a big difference to the texture at the end!
Once the grains of sugar have disappeared turn the heat up to medium and stop stirring. Now you have to watch very closely! It will darken very quickly and you are looking for a deep amber colour. With honey this only takes about 2 minutes.
And a one…
two…
three… and we’re ready for the magic part!
Take the saucepan off the heat. Quickly sprinkle over the baking soda and fold together quickly until it’s mixed in. It will foam up a lot so be careful not to get hot sugar on your hands as you mix.
Try to mix as little as you can because lots of stirring can break up the bubbles and make the honeycomb dense when it sets up. Tip the mixture out onto the prepared baking sheet and leave it to set. It will slump down and settle into a big golden puddle about an inch deep. Leave it until it’s set completely – about 20 minutes. You can test it by gently tapping the top with your fingertip.
Then smash it up!
And eat it! If you’re feeling fancy, dip the pieces in dark chocolate before gobbling. Those little crumbs from breaking it up are also excellent on ice cream…
Actually Honeycomb
Prep Time : 15 mins | Cook Time : 10 mins | Total Time : 30 mins | Difficulty : Moderate | Makes : approx 9 x 9 inch slab
Light, crunchy sweet honeycomb made with real honey – perfect on its own, dipped in chocolate or crumbled over ice cream.
Ingredients:
- 1/3 plus 1/4 US cups + 1 tablespoon (150 grams) caster (superfine) sugar
- 2 tablespoons (50 grams) honey
- 1 tablespoon (25 grams) corn syrup
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
– If using metric cups, reduce volume measures by 1 tablespoon for every cup of dry or liquid ingredients –
Equipment:
- Large heavy-bottomed saucepan
- Baking sheet lightly greased with vegetable oil or lined with a silicone sheet (silpat)
Directions:
Grease a large baking sheet with a little vegetable oil or line it with a silpat or a similar silicone sheet. Set aside nearby. Sift the cinnamon and baking soda into a small bowl. This sounds silly but lumps in the baking soda make it harder to mix in at the end and can leave you with little pockets of soda in the finished honeycomb.
Put all the other ingredients into a large heavy bottomed saucepan – at least 2 and 1/2 litres in size. Over a low heat melt all the ingredients together, stirring all the time. Be patient – taking time now will make a big difference to the texture at the end!
Once the grains of sugar have disappeared turn the heat up to medium and stop stirring. Now you have to watch very closely! It will darken very quickly and you are looking for a deep amber colour. With honey this only takes about 2 minutes.
Quickly sprinkle over the baking soda and fold together quickly until it’s mixed in. It will foam up a lot so be careful not to get hot sugar on your hands as you mix.
Try to mix as little as you can get away with as lots of stirring can break up the bubbles and make the honeycomb dense when it sets up. Tip the whole lot out onto the prepared baking sheet and leave it to set. It will slump down and settle into a bog golden puddle about and inch deep. Leave it until it’s set completely – about 20 minutes. You can test it by gently tapping the top with your fingertip.
Break the honeycomb into manageable pieces and enjoy.
Cook’s Notes:
- To make classic Hokey Pokey, just replace the honey with an equal amount of golden syrup
- Once made, jazz the honeycomb up by dipping pieces in dark chocolate
- This treat is egg, dairy and gluten free
– Honeycomb will keep well for a couple of weeks in an airtight container –
Adapted from Sugar and Spice.
© 2015 The Winsome Baker. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe.
The honeycomb stack is very cute! I like how this recipe doesn’t require a candy thermometer.
Thanks Elaine – watching and smelling are the key to this one!