Do you want to know the secret ingredient to making the greatest honeycomb ever? It’s a little bit weird, and you might already have it in your pantry…
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A quick ‘honeycomb’ google will give you around 13 000 recipes – and unless they look like THIS, they’re all wrong! Most homemade honeycomb recipes (even my own previous attempts!) give you a honeycomb with large, inconsistent bubbles, which, if you’re South African, is far from the crunchie bars we know, love and want to recreate! So how do you get a honeycomb with small, consistent bubbles that doesn’t break your teeth AND tastes good?
Before we get to the secret ingredient, it’s important to make sure you use a really good quality sugar because style over substance is never a good thing! I used the beautiful Natura Sugars Golden Caster Sugar for this recipe. It’s unrefined which means it contains all the natural flavour of sugar cane and the fine texture makes it perfect for sweet-making as it dissolves effortlessly and there’s less risk of your sugar syrup crystallizing.
Okay, so you’re dying to find out what the secret ingredient is, right?! Well… the secret is… GELATINE! When you add gelatine to the honeycomb caramel, it forms a network. Once you add the bicarbonate of soda (the fun part!), it releases carbon dioxide very quickly and expands rapidly. The gelatine network traps this carbon dioxide giving you a lot of smaller bubbles. This makes the gelatine easier on the eye – and not as hard to eat.
I like things that are easier to eat, don’t you?!
- 5g powdered gelatine
- 20ml water
- 685g Natura Sugars Golden Caster Sugar
- 370g glucose
- 200ml water
- 20g honey
- 20g bicarbonate of soda, sifted
- Grease and line a large 20cm square, deep baking tin with baking paper and set aside.
- Sprinkle the gelatine over the water and allow to soak for 5 minutes. Weight out 5g and discard the rest.
- Combine the sugar, glucose and water in a large saucepan over low heat, allowing the sugar to melt slowly until completely dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook to 140 degrees celsius on a sugar thermometer. Add the honey then continue to cook to 150 degrees celsius.
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool, without disturbing it, for 5 minutes.
- Working quickly, add the 5 g of soaked gelatine and stir well to incorporate fully.
- Quickly stir in the bicarbonate of soda, as the mixture rises, pour it into the prepared tin.
- Allow to cool for at least 2 hours (if it’s a hot day, cool it in the freezer to prevent it from collapsing).
- Break or cut into pieces and dip in The Kate Tin Dark Chocolate, if desired.
- TIP Save the silica sachets from handbags and shoes and add one to a ziplock bag along with your honeycomb. This will absorb humidity and stop the honeycomb from going sticky.