If an easy-peasy, crunchy candy dipped in chocolate sounds like your kind of good time, wowza—have I got a deliciously simple treat for you. Honeycomb, which goes by myriad whimsical names (more on that below), is made with just four ingredients—sugar, syrup, baking soda, and cream of tartar—or five if you count the water (but who’s counting?).
Yes, honeycomb making involves boiling sugar on the stovetop and using a candy thermometer, and yes that can be scary, but I 100% got you and will be holding your hand all the way through the short (and sweet!) process. Moreover, for all the honey-lovers in the house, this recipe actually calls for honey as an ingredient, unlike others on the web that include corn syrup in their list and are therefore “honeycomb” in name only.
But What is Honeycomb?
Honeycomb is a candy that goes by many different names, including sponge toffee, hokey pokey, and cinder toffee. And when chocolate-coated, it is often referred to as “crunchie bar” (because it tastes like an English candy bar of that name) or “violet crumbles” (because it tastes like an Australian candy bar of that name).
Honeycomb is in the toffee family and is thus structurally rigid and crunchy in texture. However, due to the magic that is baking soda, which is added to the hot sugar-syrup mixture after it reaches temperature, it is filled with the most marvelous bubbles, giving the finished candy a light and airy feel.
Its origins are a little tricky to decipher. Some believe it first appeared in the 1940s, but others claim it showed up in the U.S. in the mid-19th century and in Britain in the 1920s. But one thing is clear: Honeycomb candy is popular all over the world, and once you make it from scratch in the comfort of your own kitchen, you’re going to understand why. If there is a homemade candy that offers up more bang for the buck than honeycomb, we have yet to be introduced.
