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This Honeycomb Candy has flavors of delicious honey; it’s made with zero corn syrup and has wonderful notes of toffee. Give this as a gift, along with my homemade sugar cubes, tanghulu and homemade vanilla extract, for the best homespun gift.
Before we begin, let’s start with basics.
What Is Honeycomb?
Honeycomb has a lot of different names: honeycomb toffee, sponge toffee, cinder toffee, hokey pokey, etc. They’re all names to describe a candy that’s made from combining brown sugar, corn syrup and baking soda. The lattice structure of the candy is caused by the baking soda reacting with the acid, resulting in these little air pockets throughout the candy. These pockets of air make it look like honeycomb!
How This Recipe is Different
This recipe uses ZERO corn syrup. I don’t think corn syrup is terrible at all. (I love it in a delicious Dark Chocolate Pecan Pie.) But I love the flavor of honey and I wanted my honeycomb to taste like honey.
I used clover honey, but feel free to use wildflower or another type of honey that you like. Iโd probably avoid raw honey, mainly because I havenโt tried it that way and I want you to actually end up with something edible, breakable and delicious.
Ingredients You’ll Need for Honeycomb Candy
- Granulated sugar – This is critical in adding caramelization to the candy.
- Honey – I used clover honey but feel free to use wildflower or another flavor you like.
- Baking soda – This gives the honeycomb candy that delicious fluffy, airy texture.
For the rest of the ingredients, please refer to the recipe index card!
Preparation Is Key
The honeycomb is cooked in a large pot (I used a 5-quart Dutch oven). When you add everything to the pot, youโll think itโs a bit silly and itโs way too big but when the baking soda is added, the whole thing bubbles up quite a bit so you want that extra space. SAFETY!
It really takes like 10 minutes to make. And after that you just transfer it to a baking sheet and wait for it to set, which is like a minute.
Breaking it up is maybe my favorite part.
What to do with Honeycomb Candy?
- Chocolate– Dip the broken pieces in chocolate and top with a bit of Maldon sea salt.
- Cake – Take a cake (I think it would go well on this Brown Butter Cake) and garnish it with honeycomb shards. Instant drama and beauty.
- Milkshake – The best part about milkshakes are the mix-ins which give it a tremendous amount of texture to an otherwise silky smooth dessert. The honeycomb doesnโt get soggy, instead it provides this wonderful chewy consistency throughout.
- Gift It! – And of course, you could just enjoy it on its own. Put it in a bag with a lilโ twine on top for a lilโ present. Who wouldn’t want a bag of Honeycomb Candy!
Tips and Tricks
- Prep! – I said it above but definitely get all of your ingredients and baking sheet ready. This is not a time-consuming recipe but it goes very quickly.
- Thickness – I used a half baking sheet. And it was on the thinner side. If you want it thicker, then feel free to use a 8×8 inch baking pan lined with parchment.
Recipe FAQs
The baking soda (also known as bicarbonate of soda) heats up and when it does that, it releases a gas that gets trapped in the caramelized honey and sugar. This results in bubbles that resembles actual honeycomb from bees!
This is a result of the mixture not cooking long enough. You really want it to cook for the full three minutes.
You can store it in an airtight container. If you live in a very humid place (like Florida), you might have trouble keeping it crispy for a long period of time.
More Honey Desserts
If you tried this Honeycomb Candy or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Honeycomb Candy
Equipment
- 1 baking sheet lined in parchment
- 1 (4-quart) pot
- Digital thermometer
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon baking soda, sifted
- 1 1/4 cups white granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup honey
- Pinch kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Sifting the baking soda is a crucial step in this recipe because it tends to be clumpy. I like to sift it into a small bowl and have it ready.
- This recipe goes very quickly so gather all of your ingredients and supplies. Line a baking sheet with parchment and have it nearby. A silicon spatula also comes in handy with this recipe.
- In a large pot (I like to use a 5-quart Dutch oven), pour in the sugar, honey and salt. Heat the sugar mixture to 295 degrees F, about 3-5 minutes, stirring it with a silicon spatula to ensure even caramelization. Cook it until it turns an autumn-like brown.
- Turn off the heat and then immediately add mix the vanilla extract and baking soda. The mixture will foam up quite a bit, continue stirring until the baking soda completely dissolves. Quickly pour the honeycomb mixture onto a sheet of parchment. Allow it to cool completely before touching it, about 5 minutes.
- I waited about 5 additional minutes before attempting to break it apart. I really wanted to make sure it was set. Break the honeycomb apart and transfer to an airtight container. Depending on where you live, the moisture can set in and make it a lot less crisp.
Notes
- Prep! – I said it above but definitely get all of your ingredients and baking sheet ready. This is not a time-consuming recipe but it goes very quickly.
- Thickness – I used a half baking sheet. And it was on the thinner side. If you want it thicker, then feel free to use a 8×8 inch baking pan lined with parchment.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This post was originally published on October 15th, 2016. It has been since updated with new information and formatting.
I added a tablespoon of vinegar at the beginning and it turned out perfect!!!
I’m obsessed with this recipe. I didn’t have a problem with it but I did use a candy thermometer. That helps a lot I think. I also didn’t touch it until it was super cool. It was crispy flavorful and delicious.
Love to hear this, Scott!
This recipe works if you cook to the right temps. Easiest way is to check it using an ice cold glass of water. Look up candy making hard ball stage. That’s what you’re looking for before you stir in the baking soda and vanilla. Low and slow is the best way to cook the mixture to avoid a burnt taste. If your results are chewy you didn’t get it hot enough. If it’s burnt taste you went too hot. If it still tastes acidic like baking soda you added that too early and it wasn’t hot enough.
Very quick and easy recipe for my first try. Made quite the mess and I did take a little before completely dry and it was very chewy. I’ll probably look for a different recipe to see if I can find a more airy one but it worked for me.
Thank you so much for the great recipie! I followed it in Wisconsin, then again in New Mexico (at 6000 ft elevation) and got larger bubbles within at the the higher altitude (I guess that would be expected).
My “teflon” spatula >melted< when I was removing the cooked candy from the hot pot and saw it was made in China, so since there were little bits of spatula in my honeycomb pieces, I tossed those and made another batch with a large wooden spoon. Perfect honeycomb!! Thank you!
Didnโt work for me tasted like baking sodaโฆare you sure 1 tablespoon is required?
Made it two time sure I somehow messed up but this recipe doesnโt work. You end up with an inedibly chewy honey flavored taffee instead of honey comb. I wasted so much honey on this.
Tried it twice and always turns out chewier than I want it to be.