teas.co.uk
Tea and coffee from the brands you know
How is honeycomb toffee made?
Honeycomb toffee is a kitchen chemistry experiment you can eat. A pan of hot syrup, a spoonful of baking soda, and the whole thing foams up and sets like a sponge. Here is how it works, and the many names it goes by, from cinder toffee to hokey pokey.
In this article
Citable formats
For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Honeycomb toffee is a sugary toffee with a light, rigid, sponge like texture. It gets its holes from a little kitchen chemistry: baking soda stirred into hot syrup.
How it is made
- Boil the syrup. The main ingredients are brown sugar, or corn syrup, molasses or golden syrup. These are boiled into a hot, thick syrup: see how are sweets made?
- Add baking soda. Baking soda is stirred in, sometimes with an acid such as vinegar.
- Watch it foam. The baking soda releases carbon dioxide gas. With an acid, the two react to make the gas; without one, the heat of the syrup breaks the soda down and releases it. The gas is trapped in the very thick mixture, which puffs up into a foam.
- Let it set. The sponge like structure forms while the sugar is still liquid, then the toffee sets hard.
Because the recipe is simple and quick, in some places honeycomb is often made at home, and it is a popular one to make with children, with an adult handling the hot syrup.
Cinder toffee and other names
Honeycomb goes by many names. In Britain it is honeycomb or cinder toffee, and in Scotland puff candy. Cinder toffee is a variant made by cooking the sugar longer, often with golden syrup, for a richer, more caramelised flavour and a crunchy and chewy texture: see how is toffee made? In New Zealand it is hokey pokey, in Canada sponge toffee, and in Hungary törökméz, meaning Turkish honey, sold at town fairs.
Honeycomb in a bar
Honeycomb is also made commercially and sold in small blocks or covered in chocolate. A popular example is the Crunchie bar, sold in Britain and Canada, and in Australia there is the Violet Crumble.
Bubbles in the pan, not in the mouth
Honeycomb's bubbles are made while the sweet is cooking. Other sweets release gas in the mouth instead: popping candy traps carbon dioxide under pressure, and sherbet fizzes when acid and bicarbonate meet your saliva: see how does popping candy pop? and why do fizzy sweets fizz on your tongue?
Citable formats
For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Questions and answers
How is honeycomb toffee made?
Sugar and syrup are boiled, then baking soda is stirred in. The soda gives off carbon dioxide, which is trapped in the thick, hot syrup and makes it foam. The foam sets hard as it cools, leaving a light, rigid, sponge like toffee.
Why does honeycomb have holes?
The holes are bubbles of carbon dioxide. If an acid such as vinegar is added, it reacts with the baking soda to make the gas; if not, the heat itself breaks down the baking soda and releases it. The syrup is so thick that the bubbles are trapped as it sets.
What is cinder toffee?
A British variant of honeycomb, made by cooking the sugar longer, often with golden syrup, for a richer, more caramelised flavour and a crunchy and chewy texture.
Sources
- Honeycomb toffee, Wikipedia
- Candy making, Wikipedia
- Caramelization, Wikipedia
Keep reading
- How it is madeHow is toffee made?Toffee is sugar or treacle boiled with butter to the hard crack stage, 149 to 154°C, then poured out to set. Cooked less, it stays chewier.
- How it is madeHow are sweets made?Most sweets start as sugar syrup boiled to a set temperature, from about 112°C for fudge to 160°C for hard sweets. The stages, the methods and some history.
- Questions people askHow does popping candy pop?Popping candy is hard candy with tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide trapped inside under high pressure. As it melts on your tongue, the bubbles burst and crackle.
- Questions people askWhy do fizzy sweets fizz on your tongue?Fizzy sweets fizz because an acid and bicarbonate react in your saliva and make carbon dioxide. Your sour taste cells then sense the gas as a tingle.
- British heritage sweetsOld fashioned toffeeA guide to Britain's old fashioned toffees, from slab toffee broken with a hammer to Everton, Harrogate, Walker's Nonsuch, Riley's, Sharps and Mackintosh's.
- How it is madeHow is seaside rock made?Seaside rock is boiled sugar, pulled until it turns white, wrapped in a coloured casing and rolled out by hand into long thin sticks.