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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 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. I’d probably avoid raw honey, mainly because I haven’t 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, you’ll think it’s a bit silly and it’s 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–Â Dip the broken pieces in chocolate and top with a bit of Maldon sea salt.
- Cake –Â 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 doesn’t 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 lil’ twine on top for a lil’ 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.
Other A Cozy Kitchen Favorites
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Honeycomb Candy
Equipment
- 1 baking sheet lined in parchment
- 1 (4-quart) pot
- Silicon spatula
- 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.
I made mine using raw honey (it’s what I had, and I wasn’t running back out to the store), and it came out perfectly! Thank you! It was such a big hit.
I’m not sure what I did wrong (possibly added a smidge too much of the vanilla maybe) but mine isn’t getting crunchy at all..
the recipe was so good but it did not get crunchy so im going to try again. thank you!