Honeycomb toffee, sponge toffee, hokey pokey. Whatever you call this confection, we can all agree that it’s one of a kind! Crunchy, light, sweet toffee pieces, guaranteed to take you right back to your childhood.
Crunchy honeycomb toffee coated in chocolate – easy to make and addictively delicious!
Crunchie chocolate bars were my favorite growing up. But now they are a little too sweet for my liking. So, as an alternative, I came up with these dark chocolate coated, homemade honeycomb toffee, sprinkled with sea salt. These have the perfect balance of sweet, caramel, crunchy, salty and bittersweet chocolate!
Honeycomb is of course sugar based, so it’s always going to be sweet, but balancing that sweetness with salt and chocolate is crucial, and helps take the edge off all that sugar in this candy.
And this is so easy and fun to make! They make EXCELLENT treats in candy boxes. Plus you can use the same recipe to make either honeycomb toffee or sponge toffee.
Why this recipe works
- Made with golden syrup for a more authentic flavor. But other substitutes are also provided.
- I show two methods for making this candy – the first creates large honeycomb holes, and the second makes smaller sponge like holes.
- I’ve been making this recipe for years, so it’s foolproof!
- You can coat them in chocolate to make this candy last longer.
All you need to make honeycomb toffee
- Sugar – White granulated sugar, but you can use brown sugar as well.
- Golden syrup – Golden syrup adds authentic flavor to crunchie bars or hokey pokey. But you can also use honey or corn syrup.
- Water
- Sea salt – Helps balance the sweetness.
- Baking soda – The CO2 released from baking soda is what creates the beautiful honeycomb structure in the toffee.
To make sponge toffee that has smaller holes, you only need to add
- Gelatin dissolved in a little water – The gelatin creates another structural matrix in the toffee, making the holes smaller and more compact (scroll down to see a side by side comparison).
I do prefer making honeycomb toffee over sponge toffee. Although the sponge toffee is much closer to the texture of a crunchie bar.
Making honeycomb toffee from scratch
Line a 8 or 9 inch square pan with parchment paper. You can also use a 9 x 13 pan, but the honeycomb mixture will be thinner.
Place all the ingredients, EXCEPT for the baking soda, in a large saucepan.
Gently stir the ingredients to saturate all of the sugar with water.
Heat the sugar syrup to dissolve the sugar. Swirl the saucepan, instead of stirring, to melt the sugar.
Clip on a candy thermometer and heat the sugar syrup until it reaches 300 F (hard crack stage).
As soon as the honeycomb toffee syrup reaches the correct temperature, remove the saucepan from the heat. Immediately add the baking soda, and whisk it in vigorously. Be CAREFUL not to burn your hands!
The sugar mixture will foam up and expand a lot. When the baking soda has been mixed in and the sugar mixture has fully expanded, immediately pour it into the prepared pan.
Now let the honeycomb toffee mixture completely cool and set.
What’s the difference between honeycomb toffee and sponge toffee
Honeycomb toffee has that beautiful open honeycomb texture.
Sponge toffee, as the name suggests, has more sponge like texture. This happens because of the addition of the gelatin mixture.
To make sponge toffee, you need to bloom the gelatin in a little water. Add this to the sugar syrup after it reaches the right temperature, followed by the baking soda. Whisk in both, until the mixture foams up.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and let it harden.
How to break the toffee into pieces
Once the honeycomb toffee is hardened, remove it from the pan and place it on a chopping board. Use the tip of a very sharp knife, and gently push it into the honeycomb toffee – it’ll shatter into pieces. Then break any large pieces into smaller ones.
Don’t discard any honeycomb toffee pieces that get crushed or are too small. You can add that to your coffee, hot chocolate, or vanilla steamers because they dissolve really well and add incredible flavor.
Your homemade honeycomb toffee is now ready to eat! But if you’d like to, you can coat them with some chocolate for even more spectacular results!
How to coat the honeycomb toffee in chocolate
I prefer to coat my honeycomb with dark chocolate. Anything between 60 – 70% cocoa content is my favorite option to balance the sweetness of the toffee. But you can choose any chocolate you prefer.
Temper the chocolate using this article as a guide.
You can either brush the melted chocolate on the honeycomb/sponge toffee using a clean, dry pastry brush, OR you can dip the toffee in the chocolate.
And don’t forget to sprinkle some salt on top. I like to use Maldon sea salt flake.
How to store the candy for later
Uncoated honeycomb toffee/sponge toffee
These will keep in an airtight container for about a week (maybe longer depending on the container). Make sure to separate the toffee pieces/layers with parchment paper or wax paper between them. The more they are exposed to air, the more sticky and soft the toffee will become.
Chocolate covered honeycomb toffee
These will last much longer. The chocolate prevents the toffee pieces from being exposed to air, so these will stay crisp for much longer. I’ve kept mine for up to a month (could be even longer, but ours usually finish before that).
Neither honeycomb toffee nor sponge toffee should be stored in the fridge. They last longer at room temperature in a cool, dark place.
Final notes, tips and tricks
Remember to use a large pot to make the honeycomb toffee. Once you add the baking soda, it’ll expand significantly, so all that space will be needed.
Have all the ingredients weighed and measured before you start, especially the baking soda. This way, the baking soda is ready to go as soon as the sugar syrup comes to the right temperature.
Wear gloves to whisk the sugar mixture, if available. The mixture releases a lot of steam, and the gloves will provide you protection. You won’t need gloves once you get used to the process though, because you’ll know how to avoid the steam.
This honeycomb toffee is incredible! Sweet, yes, but perfectly balanced with the bittersweet chocolate and salt. You’d be surprised at how much of it you could easily put away!
These are perfect for gift giving during the holidays as well, because they are super easy to make and very impressive too!
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Honeycomb Toffee Recipe
Ingredients:
Honeycomb toffee base
- 350 g granulated white sugar or brown sugar (1 ¾ cup)
- 160 – 170 g golden syrup or honey / corn syrup (½ cup)
- 120 mL water
- ½ tsp salt use only ¼ tsp if you don’t want to taste the salt flavor
- 1 tbsp baking soda
Gelatin mix (optional – for a more dense sponge-like texture)
- 2 tsp water
- ½ tsp gelatin
To coat
- 300 g tempered bittersweet chocolate approximate weight, you can also use milk or semisweet chocolate instead
- Sea salt flakes (I use maldon sea salt flakes)
Instructions:
Honeycomb toffee
- Line a 9 inch square pan with parchment paper (sides and bottom). Set aside until needed.
- Keep a spatula and a whisk ready, as you will need them towards the end of the cook time.
- Place the sugar, golden syrup / corn syrup, water, and salt in a large saucepan (this mixture will expand a lot, so use a large pot with enough space).
- Gently stir to saturate the sugar with the water.
- Heat over medium high heat, while swirling the pot frequently to ensure the sugar is dissolved.
- Brush the sides of the pot with a pastry brush dipped in cold water to dissolve the sugar crystals on the side of the pot. Do NOT stir the sugar syrup.
- When the sugar syrup comes to a boil and all the sugar has dissolved, clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pot.
- Heat the sugar mixture until it reaches 300°F. Swirl the pot as you heat the sugar to make sure the syrup is evenly heating (check several spots in the syrup with the candy thermometer to make sure it's evenly heating).
- Get the prepared pan, whisk, and spatula ready when the sugar syrup is close to 300°F. You can use an oven mitt for whisking the sugar base in the following steps, if you like.
- When the sugar syrup reaches 300°F, remove the pot from the heat and immediately add all of the baking soda.
- Whisk the baking soda well into the sugar syrup. Make sure to reach all the corners of the pot. The sugar syrup will expand into a foamy honeycomb mixture.
- As soon as the baking soda is thoroughly mixed in and the mixture has expanded, scrape the honeycomb mixture into the prepared pan.
- Allow the mixture to harden for a few hours.
- Once the candy is hardened, remove it from the pan and peel off the parchment paper. Place it on a cutting board.
- Use the tip of a sharp knife to break the honeycomb into pieces. These will be uneven pieces.
For more dense, sponge toffee texture
- While the sugar syrup is cooking, bloom the gelatin in the water in a small microwave-safe bowl. Let it bloom for 10 minutes.
- Microwave the gelatin for just a few seconds to dissolve the gelatin. Do NOT let it boil.
- Add the dissolved warm gelatin mixture into the sugar syrup, followed by the baking soda. Whisk vigorously, and then transfer the mix into the prepared pan (as per instructions above).
To coat honeycomb with chocolate
- Temper the chocolate using this guide.
- Dip the honeycomb toffee in tempered chocolate (you can dip them either fully or partially). Alternatively, you can brush the chocolate on the toffees with a clean, dry pastry brush.
- Place them on a parchment paper lined tray. Sprinkle salt on top before the chocolate sets.
- Allow the chocolate to set at room temperature (do not put them in the fridge).
Storing the toffee
- Uncoated honeycomb toffee – Store these honeycomb pieces in an air-tight container at room temperature for about 1 week (or 2 weeks if it's not humid). Place parchment paper or wax paper between layers of the honeycomb to prevent them from sticking to each other.
- Chocolate coated honeycomb toffee – These can be stored at room temp for much longer (even up to a month) in an air-tight container.
- Do NOT store these in the fridge or freezer.
Nutrition Information:
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
susan paquette says
It was difficult for me not to stir this mixture but I practised restraint throughout, just swirled as directed. I have a gas stove so it reached 300 degrees quickly while the mixture became a lovely golden colour. It turned out amazing! I going to dip some in tempered milk chocolate. Thank you for this recipe! Merry Christmas
Mercy asukwo says
I love the recipe
Dominique says
Great recipe and kid-friendly prep. My daughter loved helping me measure out the ingredients and seeing the sponge toffee “puff up” after adding the baking soda. The recipe yields a VERY tall sponge toffee in a 9×9″ pan. I’d suggest a 9×13″ pan if you want more pieces that aren’t about 1.25″ tall.
Char says
My guy loves sponge toffee and i’ve made it a few times…but i hadn’t made any in a while and then i ventured upon your recipe! I did a half batch, but otherwise followed everything to a “t” including the temperature. The mixture kept bubbling even after it was poured in the pan, and it bubbled and bubbled, overflowed from the pan and onto my counter. Then it proceeded to deflate. So i had a huge mess to clean and now i’m wondering if the deflated honeycomb will set 🙁 I sampled from the this dried edges and they taste lovely. Any ideas as to what i might have done wrong?
Mac says
you might have added slightly too much baking soda or used too small of a pan. I almost had the same problem, but I managed to catch it in the second pan before it bubbled over when I added the baking soda. I used a 9 x 13 pan instead of a 9×9 and it fit perfectly. I noticed mine deflated slightly as well, but I think that’s just how it starts to settle down. Mine was still light and bubbly on the inside after all was said and done.
Sara says
Your recipe instructions were excellent, and everyone was amazed at how perfect the seafoam (which is what my family calls it) turned out! I was concerned when the temperature didn’t rise for awhile, but it got to 300 F eventually.
I used light corn syrup and all of our leftover bits of chocolate – so delicious!
Thanks for the great recipe!
Dini says
Thank you Sara, so glad everyone enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
Lisa says
Can you use maple syrup instead of honey?
Dini says
Hi Lisa
The purpose of the honey is to prevent crystallization. Maple syrup doesn’t have as much invert sugar as honey, so may not be as good at preventing crystallization.
You CAN use maple syrup, but you have to be more mindful about not causing the syrup to crystalize.
I hope that helps!
Roxanne Ledoux says
I’m going to try it
I loved this aa a child.
Sarah says
How long does it last? Can you freeze it?
Dini says
Hi Sarah
If you completely coat the toffee with chocolate, they can last for about 10 days, depending on the weather. Without chocolate, they would only last about 5 days because they will soften as they absorb more moisture.
I don’t recommend freezing this, as it will definitely melt as it thaws out.
I hope that helps!
Mark says
For some reason, I can’t get the temp to 300F. Seems to max out at 210F. Any suggestions? How long would it normally take to hit 300F? I thought maybe putting a lid on but then the candy thermometer is in the way. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you for you’re time.
Dini says
Hi Mark
Usually the sugar syrup temperature rises as the water evaporates and the sugar becomes more concentrated. If you close the lid, the water won’t be able to evaporate and it will actually interfere with the syrup cooking process.
212 F is the boiling point of water, so if the syrup is stuck there that unfortunately means that you probably need to cook the syrup longer. This process can take some time depending on the stove and saucepan you are using. Once the water starts to evaporate more, the temperature of the syrup should start to go up.
Hope that helps
Michelle says
Was in a rush to taste it so stuck it in the fridge to cool. I didn’t use chocolate to coat. Such a great recipe. Made it years ago with another recipe & it didn’t work. This turned out well.
Maryanne says
Thankyou for the great recipe.
Katie says
This has such amazing flavor! I love it as a topping for vanilla ice cream!
Michelle says
I have always wanted to try this recipe and finally made it, and it is the most amazing this I have tasted! No wonder they make this on the Great British Bake Off all the time!
Noranda Arnett says
This turned out so good, and was really fun and easy to make! I used golden syrup, and white sugar, and dipped them in dark chocolate with a sprinkle of sea salt, I don’t think they’re going to last very long, they are so tasty!
Dini says
I’m so glad you enjoyed them Noranda, thank you so much for letting me know! 🙂