Honeycomb Candy from the Seattlest

By MJH

Crunchie bars are one of our absolute favorite British candies. Called Violet Crumbles in Australia, these are airy bars of caramel-like "honey comb" coated with a thin layer of chocolate. So far our addiction has been limited by the availability of the candy bar here in the states - but no longer!

Ingredients

• Optional:
• 75 grams honey (1/4 cup)
• 140 grams light corn syrup or glucose (1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon)
• 400 grams sugar (2 cups)
• 20 grams baking soda (3 1/2 teaspoons)
• Chocolate melted

Details

Adapted from thekitchn.com

Preparation

Step 1

Prepare a sheet pan (preferably with sides) with a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil and brush it with a thin coating of butter or oil.

If you have a silpat, put that down and forgo the grease.

Set aside.

Combine the honey, corn syrup and sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan--one large enough to allow the mixture to quadruple in size (which it will do when you add the baking soda at the end).

Moisten the mixture with enough water so that there are no dry patches of sugar; then wash down any stray sugar crystals that might be clinging to the side of the pan.

Set the pan on high heat and cook and cook and cook until a candy thermometer reaches 300 F or, if you don’t have a thermometer, until the mixture turns a light amber color.

While the mixture is cooking, do NOT stir it at all.

Stirring can cause the sugar to seize (one moment it’s fine, one moment it’s hard and crystallized).

Don’t worry about it mixing properly, it will do that on its own when it starts to boil.

When the honeycomb is sufficiently cooked, take the pan off the heat.

Dump in all of your baking soda and whisk vigorously until it is well combined; while you whisk, the honeycomb will foam up dramatically.

After the soda is whisked in, gently pour the mixture out onto a prepared pan and allow to cool completely, about one hour.

Once cool, break into smaller pieces and store in an airtight container.

Really, we mean airtight.

A rubbermaid wrapped in plastic inside a ziplock freezer bag would be good. (Honeycomb is hygroscopic, meaning that it sucks in moisture from the air, leaving an unprotected initially crisp candy sticky and gooey in a matter of hours.)

Optional:
Coating the bars in chocolate had the double effect of making them even more delicious and also protecting them from melting.

Brush teeth immediately after consumption.