Honeycomb Candy Hokey Pokey Nigella Lawson Recipes

HOKEY POKEY

Steps:

• Put the sugar and syrup into a saucepan and stir together to mix. You can't stir once the pan's on the heat, though.
• Place the pan on the heat and let the mixture first melt and then turn to goo and then a bubbling mass the color of maple syrup - this will take 3 minutes or so.
• Off the heat, whisk in the baking soda and watch the syrup turn into a whooshing cloud of aerated pale gold. Turn this immediately onto a piece of baking parchment or greased foil.
• Leave until set and then bash at it, so that it splinters into many glinting pieces.

HONEYCOMB CANDY (HOKEY POKEY) - NIGELLA LAWSON

Steps:

• Stir sugar and syrup together in a cold pan. Put over medium-high heat; from this point, do NOT stir, but only swirl the pan. Cook until golden and thick, and bubbles are beginning to mount.
• Turn off heat and add baking soda. Whisk vigorously. Pour onto a silicone liner (Silpat) and let stand 15 minutes. Smash into large pieces.

HONEYCOMB CANDY - AKA HOKEY-POKEY OR SPONGE CANDY

Steps:

• In a saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, honey, and water, and using a wooden spoon, stir constantly over low heat until the sugar is fully dissolved.
• Put candy thermometer into the mixture to monitor temperature, increase the heat and boil mixture to exactly 270 degrees F (132C).
• Reduce heat to as low as possible and maintain the temperature 270F for exactly 15 minutes.
• It is very important that the temperature of the mixture does not fluctuate; if the temperature begins to rise, remove the pan from heat occasionally to reduce the heat.
• After the temperature has been maintained for 15 minutes, remove the pan from heat, take out the thermometer, and allow the bubbles to subside.
• Using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in finely sifted baking soda.
• Immediately and quickly pour the mixture into a large oiled baking dish.
• (Please note, important: the pouring step requires strength and you'll be handling extremely hot liquids; if you're not strong and agile enough you might want to leave that step to a strong and able assistant.) When candy has completely cooled, remove from pan and break into pieces.
• Many lovers of honeycomb candy like to coat the pieces in chocolate- you can dunk the pieces into melted chocolate if you like.

HONEYCOMB TOFFEE

Steps:

• Line a baking dish with parchment paper, measure out baking soda in a small bowl, and have a heat-proof spatula ready before starting.
• Whisk sugar, corn syrup, honey, and water together in a saucepan with a candy thermometer attached. Heat over medium heat until mixture is thinner but still cloudy. Let bubble until mixture is clear and thermometer registers 300 degrees F (149 degrees C).
• Remove from heat. Whisk in baking soda until just incorporated. Switch to a spatula and very carefully pour into the lined dish. Do not spread it out with your spatula or compress mixture at all, or the bubbles will deflate. Let cool completely, at least 30 minutes.
• Remove candy from the pan by lifting out the parchment paper. Rap against the counter and use your fingers to break it into individual pieces.