Sweet Treats

Chocolate covered Honeycomb

Kirsten

I am facing a serious test of will-power.

And I am not talking about trying to resist this chocolate covered candy creation (although more about that later).

I really, really, really want to eat a slice of bread. A thick slab of soft bloomer, spread with butter (and maybe a little jam). Or toast. Maybe half a slice of bread and half a slice of toast in order to satisfy both cravings. It’s a wanton thought that has been lurking at the back of my mind (and also the front of it) for weeks. I really want some bread. Proper bread.

But I can’t. And I know I can’t. In one swoop, or 1 minute of utter blissful satisfaction, I will have undone all the good I have done over the past 12 months (since I discovered oats were a no-no also). I know that eating that slice of bread will give me a poorly, disgruntled belly for 2 weeks. I know that it will send my immune system into overdrive after it has finally settled down and got back to normal. I know it will do me no good whatsoever.

So I can’t. And I won’t.

chocolate honeycomb 3 - the pink rose bakery

But right now it is hard. Really hard. Because bread is all I want.

Gluten free bread isn’t going to help take the craving away either, because quite frankly it is not the same. Not a bit.

Don’t get me wrong, most of the time the fact that I have to avoid gluten doesn’t bother me – apart from the whole eating out thing when I get a bit stressed and feel awkward and as if I need to apologise for my unconventional body all the time and I just want to go and hide in the corner and not be a nuisance to anyone. I don’t feel deprived of anything, because most things I can replicate. I will admit that there may be times when, if you waved one of those cinnamon swirly danish pastry thingies under my nose, I will want to punch you in the face (they were one of my favourites), but on the whole I am fine with it. I feel significantly better, so why wouldn’t I be.

Which is why this whole bread thing is tormenting me. Why all of a sudden is it on my mind so much? Why, why, why?! I wish it would go away. I may have to resort to buying one of those butter laden gluten free croissants that are more e-numbers and air than anything else in a bid to try and get rid of it. Or maybe some gf crumpets from Marks & Spencer (the best gf crumpets in my opinion, in case you were wondering, I have yet to try making my own). Yes, maybe the crumpets will satiate it for a bit, soft and buttery and I can even add jam . . .

If any of you have any tips on how to get through this torturous phase, please let me know. Until it passes I am trying to distract myself with other things.

chocolate honeycomb 1 - the pink rose bakery

Any what better than chocolate covered honeycomb – or cinder toffee, hokey pokey, or as my Mum called it the other day ‘puff candy’ which was a new one on me. Whatever you call it, it is delicious, and one of my weaknesses.

And if you enrobe it in dark chocolate, well, enough said, because seriously . . . It. Is. Good. With a capital ‘G’.

If dark chocolate is not your thing, then by all means use milk. But a good quality, cocoa rich (at least 70%) dark chocolate offsets the tooth jangling sweetness of the honeycomb perfectly.

I over-did mine a little bit – so it really was cinder toffee – and as a result it shattered more than broke up into large pieces. Not that this was a problem, because after I had coated all the large bits I tipped all the little bits into the chocolate, mixed it around and dolloped blobs of it onto the paper to set, so I had chocolate clusters of honeycomb, which is no bad thing.

chocolate honeycomb 4 - the pink rose bakery

I also used the cheats way of tempering the chocolate – melted 75% of it, then added the remaining 25% and stirred until it had melted – which is the method I have described below. If you want to go all technical and get your thermometer out, go ahead. I won’t stop you. But I may tut at how pedantic you are being . . .

chocolate honeycomb 2 - the pink rose bakery

PS – I nearly forgot to say – package it up into pretty little bags and you have lovely – dare I say it – Christmas gifts! Or halloween treats. Or just sat-on-the-sofa-in-your-PJs-watching-a-film nibbles . . .

PPS – there is still time to link up your chocolate recipes in the cook & share!

Chocolate covered Honeycomb

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 60ml golden syrup
  • 300g quality dark chocolate (at least 70& cocoa)

Method:

  1. Line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper.
  2. Measure out the bicarbonate of soda into a small bowl and set aside.
  3. Place the sugar and golden syrup into a heavy bottomed pan and place over a medium heat.
  4. Allow the mixture to slowly melt and then come up to a boil. It is important that you do not stir it, as it will crystallise. The pan can be swirled occasionally, but do not stir.
  5. Let the mixture bubble and darken in colour, until it becomes similar in colour to maple syrup.
  6. Remove from the heat and quickly whisk in the bicarbonate of soda. The mixture will bubble up.
  7. Pour onto the prepared baking sheet and leave to harden in a cool, dry place. If the air is too humid / damp, the honeycomb will become sticky and gooey.
  8. Once it is cold, break into pieces.
  9. Melt 225g of the chocolate in a bowl placed over a pan of barely simmering water (make sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water). Once the chocolate has melted, remove the bowl from the heat and add the remaining 75g of chocolate. Stir until it has melted.
  10. Coat the pieces of honeycomb in the chocolate and place on non-stick paper. Leave to set in a cool, dry place. Store in an airtight container.

NB – any small pieces of honeycomb can be mixed into any left over melted chocolate to make chocolate clusters.

© The Pink Rose Bakery 2014

Adapted a little from Nigella Lawson’s Hokey Pokey

14 thoughts on “Chocolate covered Honeycomb”

  1. Oh no, sorry to hear you’re going through a tough time with bread cravings. That doesn’t sound fun at all. These honeycombs look delicious though, nibbling on these sounds like it would be a good distraction at least. Last time I tried to make it, it went horribly wrong and I ended up with an inedible, teeth shattering plank of rock hard sugar…. Whoops. Maybe i’ll try again for christmas with your recipe and see if I have any more joy! x

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    1. Let me know how you get on. For ages my sister struggled with it because she didn’t let the sugar get brown enough and it was a deflated mass of stickiness. I, on the other hand, almost took this batch too far and nearly burnt it! Although I’d rather that than the other. I think it is one of those things that can go wrong the first time, but you shouldn’t let it put you off 🙂 x

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  2. This looks amazing and so easy! At first I thought they were actually honey combs and oh well there is no way I’ll be able to find honeycombs but this is nice. This is just like sponge toffee! Can’t wait to try this!

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    1. Sponge Toffee – another name for it! It seems to have a number of ‘also known as’.

      Not sure about actual honeycombs, from a hive, covered in chocolate. I’m not a huge fan of them in honey – bit waxy for my liking! 🙂

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  4. I so sympathise with your bread cravings. Sometimes I just want a nice soft thick slice of good white bread with a firm chewy crust, spread with slightly salted butter, but instead of jam, I’d like some nice good quality ham off the bone. And I miss currant buns. And cinnamon scrolls, and coffee scrolls and fresh jam doughnuts… But I don’t succumb, because I can’t take the ensuing three days of unfortunate and antisocial side effects, followed by weeks of irritable insides that won’t settle. Not to mention the damage I’m doing that can’t be seen. I find that making some GF bread and standing there inhaling the aroma of activated yeast helps, especially if I have some of the freshly baked product. I’m just waiting for them to perfect the vaccine they’re testing, but it’s going to take at least another 5 years before I can sink my teeth into anything gluten-y. Meanwhile, as you say, there’s always chocolate….

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    1. They’re working on a vaccine??? I haven’t heard of this.

      I won’t eat any bread, because as you’ve said the consequences aren’t worth it. Doesn’t help with the craving though. I’ve taken to sniffing the homemade white bread to get an olfactory hit. Not sure if that makes it worse though!

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      3. Another, and successful, trial they’re conducting here involves swallowing roundworm cysts, which then embed in your gut and start emitting lots of immunosuppressant to prevent the body rejecting them. This has the side benefit of enabling one to eat gluten without the antibody reaction. But the downside is that you have to live with worms…

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