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This Honeycomb Candy is one of the most impressive treats you can make with barely any effort! With just a few simple ingredients and 10 minutes, you’ll have gorgeous, golden candy with the most satisfying crunch and delicious honey-toffee flavor. It makes the perfect homespun gift alongside my homemade sugar cubes, tanghulu, and homemade vanilla extract.
The magic happens when baking soda meets hot caramelized sugar, creating all those beautiful air pockets that look just like real honeycomb. Cook your sugar mixture for a few minutes, stir in the baking soda, pour it onto a baking sheet, and you’re done! It sets in about a minute, then just break it into pieces and enjoy. Try it on top of this Brown Butter Pecan Cake.
Ingredients and Equipment 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.
- Large pot or Dutch oven – 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!
- Silicone spatula – I prefer a silicone spatula because the candy doesn’t get stuck to it, and it can easily scrape the candy mixture out of the pot
- Thermometer – I used a digital thermometer, but you can use what you have. We need the candy to reach 295℉ to achieve the right texture.
For the rest of the ingredients, please refer to the recipe index card!
How to Make Honeycomb Candy
- Prep. Sift the baking soda. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper. Have a silicone spatula and thermometer handy.
- Add sugar, honey, and salt to a large Dutch oven. Heat mixture to 295℉.
- After mixture has browned, turn off the heat. Add vanilla and baking soda and mix until dissolved.
- Pour mixture out onto sheet tray.
- Let the candy cool and set. Then break the candy apart into desired pieces.
Tips and Tricks
Prep! – It’s important to have all of your ingredients and baking sheet ready. This recipe moves very quickly.
Use a large pot. I used a 5-quart Dutch oven because once you add the baking soda, the candy bubbles up a lot more than you think!
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.
Cook the mixture for the full 3 minutes, as chewiness is a result of the mixture not cooking long enough.
Store honeycomb candy in an airtight container. If you live in a very humid place, you might have trouble keeping it crispy for a long period of time.
What to do with Honeycomb Candy?
- Chocolate – Dip the broken pieces in chocolate and top with a bit of Maldon sea salt.
- Cake – Decorate a 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 wonderfully crisp 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!
More Honey Desserts
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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
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.
this was super easy tbh but one thing to be wary of is when mixing in baking soda make sure it is evenly mixed in it is ok if you arent as fast as you wanna be. aswell as this I wanna add it works with demerara sugar aswell
Hard to know what you were tryin to say here. That’s why we use punctuation in our writings.
Really? Because I understood that just fine. And I’m an editor.
Fuck off lol
You’re such a Karen, Marlene.
Easy to make, substituted 1/2 honey 1/2 maple syrup to make it Canadian! Eh!
Thanks for the recipe. I’d like to mention though, as a beekeeper, I am shocked that you would recommend not using raw honey. As opposed to what? The fake, imported stuff in the grocery stores. You know, that stuff that comes off of ships in 50 gallon barrels from foreign countries…you know the rest…
I think it’s because the traditional recipe uses corn syrup and the processed honey usually has the sugars that make this work.
Local, raw honey works perfectly and tastes amazing. Support your local beekeeper! Fake honey sauce (honey fraud) or corn syrup — both are terrible for the environment and health. On a side note, many of my 8th grade science students never had real honey before. We studied bees, colony collapse, fake honey sauce, and the importance of bees to the food system. We ended with a visit from a local beekeeper who brought some frames and a “blind” taste test of real honey vs KFC’s “honey” packets (read the ingredients list). There was a unanimous clear winner. Real, raw, local honey. 100%.
Honestly, I got really depressed about how it said you need a heat thermometer. Then I got MORE depressed when you said that you actually needed it, when I took the pot off the heat.
The temperature of a sugar solution and the concentration of sugar in that solution are very closely correlated. The concentration of sugar in your sugar solution will impact how that sugar behaves once it’s cooled down again.
So knowing the temperature tells you when it’s time to add the baking soda.
Do we measure our baking soda before sifting or after? It would make a big difference in the actual amount going into the recipe I think.
It shouldn’t affect it too much. But yeah, you measure it out into the tablespoon measure and then sift it through a sieve. I push all of it through. 🙂
Thanks! Excited to try it out.
what metric did you use? or perhaps you can mention the measurement in grams? thanks <3
Thanks for a honeycomb recipe without corn syrup! I just made this as a surprise for my husband. It turned out pretty well, except when I broke it up it was super crumbly in the middle. I’d say about 1/3-1/2 of this just turned into sugar sized crystals and I had to throw it away. Now I still got plenty of edible chunks but I’m just wondering if you have any idea what I did wrong. Thanks.
What heat should it be cooked at. Low, medium or high? Thanks so much for the recipe!
You’d avoid using raw… honey? Raw honey is just honey that hasn’t been heat treated, and you’re heat treating it in this recipe. It’s fine.
It’s mainly because of the consistency. You want smooth, filtered honey.
Glad to learn something new. My sister’s birthday is coming and I have been contemplating of giving her something special and this dessert is a good one. Will practice this over the weekend.
Just the recipe I was looking for! I’m going to try making a Crannachie Cake … with ice-cream … derived from the Scottish sweet Crannachie, which is raspberries, honey, cream, oats and whisky 🙂 So am going to make honey ice-cream with honeycomb crunch pieces in it .. layered with sponge cake sprinkled with whisky ..and layers of fresh raspberries in raspberry jelly. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But I wonder how it will work out?
Sounds AMAZING. Those are the best combination of things ever.
So glad to find this, my friend brought honeycomb Tim tam from Australia and I loved it, but can’t find it anywhere in Minneapolis. I’m going to attempt to make my own, wish me luck. Question, if you don’t have a candy thermometer can you still attempt it?
i would suggest to order one on amazon. they’re only about $10. you don’t want to go through all the trouble and then end up with a candy-mess!