Every Saturday we make a tray of honeycomb to crumble over the pistachio, and every Saturday someone asks how. Here it is: three ingredients, one pan, fifteen minutes, and a moment of real magic.
Why it works
Honeycomb is just sugar and syrup cooked until it is very hot, with bicarbonate of soda stirred in at the last second. The heat makes the bicarbonate give off gas, the gas makes thousands of tiny bubbles, and the sugar sets hard around them before they can escape.
Two things decide whether it works. The first is temperature: the sugar has to reach the hard crack stage, around 150°C, or the honeycomb will be chewy and sink. A sugar thermometer helps, but color is a good guide too: stop at dark honey, before it turns brown.
The second is speed. Once the bicarbonate goes in, you have about five seconds of whisking before it starts to set. Have the tray lined and next to the pan before you begin, and do not stop to take a photo. You can photograph the cracking later.
Honeycomb
Prep 5 minCook 10 minSets in 1 hour
You need
- 200 g caster sugar
- 5 tbsp golden syrup
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, sifted
- A 20 cm tin, lined with baking paper
Method
- Put the sugar and syrup in a deep saucepan over a low heat. Stir gently until the sugar has melted.
- Turn the heat up and let it bubble, without stirring, until it is the color of dark honey (about 150°C).
- Take it off the heat. Tip in the bicarbonate and whisk fast for five seconds.
- Pour it straight into the tin. Do not spread it.
- Leave it alone for an hour, then break it with the end of a rolling pin.
Hot sugar burns badly. Use a deep pan, keep children back, and never taste from the spoon.
If it goes wrong
If your honeycomb sinks flat as it cools, the sugar was not hot enough: give it another minute next time. If it tastes bitter, it went too far: take it off sooner. If it is full of white lumps, the bicarbonate was not sifted. None of these is a disaster. Broken honeycomb still tastes wonderful over ice cream.
Three ways to eat it
- Crumbled over vanilla or pistachio ice cream, as we do in the shop
- Half dipped in dark chocolate, then left to set on paper
- Folded through whipped cream with a few raspberries, for a fast dessert
Keeping it crisp
Honeycomb pulls water out of the air and turns sticky within a day. Keep it in an airtight jar, away from the fridge, and eat it within three days. That has never been a problem in our kitchen.
