What will I need?
For a standard honeycomb recipe, make sure you have sugar, water and bicarbonate or soda. Some recipes will call for liquid glucose, but this isn’t always necessary.
In terms of equipment, you’ll need a sturdy heavy-based saucepan which is deep enough to hold your honeycomb mixture when it stars bubbling, and an oven tray lined with baking paper to pour your honeycomb mixture on to.
Is it difficult?
Not at all. You simply need to combine 165g sugar, 1tbs golden syrup, and 60ml of water in a large saucepan and boil it down until it reached around 140°C, or a smooth caramel forms.
Once it’s at temperature, immediately stir in 1.5tsp of bi-carb soda until the mixture froths and triples in size.
Carefully pour you mixture onto prepared tray. There is no need to spread it out, just let it stand for 30 minutes or until set and your honeycomb is completely cooled and then break into pieces.
Use broken up honeycomb to decorate cakes and stir into ice-cream, or drizzle with dark chocolate for a treat on its own!
What about the honey?
Despite its misleading name, honeycomb is generally based on pure sugar and golden syrup, rather than natural honey extracted from hives. If you like, you can still add a little of honey in for flavour, or switch out half the golden syrup for honey.
Honeycomb is a delicious way to add texture and syrupy sweetness to desserts.
When is it ready?
To test if your honeycomb is ready to be cooled, you’ll need to remove the pan from heat. Dip a teaspoon into mixture, then drop into chilled water.
Mixture should solidify and when removed from water, snap easily. It should not feel sticky.
How can I use it?
When it comes to this wonderfully sweet and crunchy treat, the options are endless. For a simply way to serve it, try [dunking it in melted milk or dark chocolate for an easy on-the-go dessert. The chocolate that sets on the outside will also help the honeycomb last longer (up to one month).
You could try gently tossing it through ice-cream to make your own hokey-pokey style frozen dessert. It’s also brilliant served crushed and stirred through delicious white chocolate mousse, decorating a banoffee pie, muffins,and puddings – take your pick!
