This salted chocolate honeycomb recipe is surprisingly easy to make and you only need four ingredients. It makes a fantastic homemade edible Christmas gift. Make it in just 15 minutes with 5 ingredients! Naturally vegan and gluten-free.
Commissioned by Thermapen.
Chocolate honeycomb
Do you make foodie Christmas gifts for people? I'll be honest that I often intend to, but then life gets in the way.
I'd love to make some of those Christmas biscuits iced like lacy doilies, but I always seem to run out of time.
And frankly, I probably don't have the patience to decorate them very artistically!
But there are some homemade food gifts that don't take long to make, and are always welcome from the lucky recipient!
Enter: salted chocolate honeycomb. You only need 15 minutes and 5 ingredients to make these fantastic treats.
Reader testimonials
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"OMG I LOVE this chocolate covered honeycomb and have made this over Xmas to give as gifts! Thanks for the recipe" - Jane
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"WOW!!! I just made this, so EASY, and so DELICIOUS!!! I’m not sure one batch will be enough…my kids are devouring it…and I may be helping them!" - Terri
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"These were so dreamy! I didn't know chocolate honeycomb was so easy to make!" - Taylor
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"Made this recipe many times for honeycombed ice cream" - Anj
Homemade honeycomb
If you've ever had a Crunchie bar, you've had chocolate covered honeycomb.
Regardless of the name, it doesn't actually have any honey in it!
It's a mix of sugar, syrup and baking soda - meaning it's actually vegan.
And, let me tell ya, people - IT IS AMAZING! Seriously.
Even if you make it as a gift, you will want to keep it all to yourself and give them a box of chocolates. Really.
Chocolate covered honeycomb
You can enjoy honeycomb on its own, but I love it dipped in melted dark chocolate and sprinkled with a few flakes of sea salt.
The creamy chocolate is lovely against the brittle and sweet shards of honeycomb, which are then offset with the sea salt.
This is definitely my best honeycomb recipe and I hope you all love it too!
Making honeycomb
Although hot sugar can seem scary, it's actually quite easy to make honeycomb.
It's much easier with a food thermometer so you know when you get to the 'hard crack' stage of 140C.
I use a digital candy thermometer so it's super-easy to know when the sugar has reached the right temperature.
Then just stir in the bicarb of soda, pour it into a pan and let it cool.
This is a basic honeycomb recipe (it's naturally vegan), that I've made extra special with salted chocolate.
Ingredients
Caster sugar (superfine sugar)
Golden syrup (or corn syrup)
Bicarb of soda (baking soda)
Dark chocolate
Sea salt
Tools
Heavy bottomed pot
Wooden spoon
8"/20cm square baking pan
Baking paper
Food thermometer (optional, but useful!)
Vegan honeycomb
It may be surprising, considering there is honey in the name (honey isn't vegan), but honeycomb is naturally vegan!
This recipe doesn't have any swaps to make it vegan, it just naturally is because none of the traditional honeycomb recipe ingredients contain animal products.
How to make honeycomb
Scroll down for step-by-step honeycomb recipe instructions and the full recipe!
1 - mix the sugar and syrup in a heavy-bottomed pot. Prepare the bicarb of soda (baking soda), and keep a thermometer and wooden spoon to hand. You'll need these quickly and won't have time to search for them!
2 - heat the sugar and syrup in a heavy saucepan to hard crack stage (150C / 300F) or see below for how to tell without a thermometer. Remove the pan from the heat.
3 - quickly but carefully (it will be hot!) stir in baking soda with a wooden spoon, then pour into prepared pan to set at room temperature.
Making honeycomb without a thermometer
Although a candy thermometer makes it easier to make homemade honeycomb, you can still make it without one.
You'll just need to test the hot sugar syrup in cold water to reach the correct stage: hard crack stage.
Hard crack stage
With a food thermometer, you can easily determine if your hot sugar syrup has reached hard crack stage: test with the thermometer until it reaches 300F/150C.
To tell if your sugar syrup is at hard crack stage without a thermometer, you'll need a bowl of very cold water.
Once the hot sugar mixture begins to darken, take a small teaspoonful and drop it into the bowl of cold water. Leave it for a few moments the reach into the water and pick up the syrup. If it's soft and pliable, then it's at soft ball stage and is not ready.
Try again until the sugar syrup instantly hardens in the water and 'cracks'.
Please see this great short video about the stages of sugar syrup.
Tips & tricks
- Be sure to gather all the ingredients and tools before you start. Once the toffee mixture is hot it's a very quick process!
- When the sugar syrup begins to darken and reaches the hard crack stage, it's not long until it could burn. Work quickly (but carefully!) and take the pan off the heat.
- Once the baking soda (bicarb of soda) is added to the oozy hot toffee mixture, it will fluff up and grow more than double in size. So choose a large or high sided pot.
- It's important that your sugar is the right temperature or stage.
- You can still make honeycomb without a thermometer - just scroll up for the method to determine hard crack stage without a thermometer.
- For tidy edges, cut while the honeycomb is still slightly warm with an oiled knife. You can also cut it while cold - it will just shatter slightly.
Thermapen
I've been using my trusty Thermapen digital food thermometer for a few years now. It takes the guesswork out of so many recipes, from candy to bread.
- The SuperFast Thermapen® 4 Cooks Thermometer is the number one selling food thermometer in the UK. Here are a few highlights:
- Temperature range of -49.9 to 299.9 °C.
- Fast and accurate
- Reads the true temperature in just three seconds.
- Stainless steel probe that conveniently folds into the unit when not in use.
Edible gifts
Looking for more edible gifts besides honeycomb for Christmas or other holidays? Try these!
- Pecan Brittle
- Christmas Chocolate Tiffin
- Rosemary Maple Roasted Nuts
- Avocado Reindeer Brownies
- Beet Chocolate Truffles
Get the recipe
Did you make this honeycomb recipe? Please let me know how it turned out for you!
Leave a comment and star rating below and share a picture with the hashtag #veggiedesserts. I love seeing your recreations of my vegetarian and vegan recipes and cakes.
Disclosure: This chocolate vegan honeycomb recipe was commissioned by Thermapen. All opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that make it possible for me to be a food blogger and write Veggie Desserts.
Salted Chocolate Honeycomb Recipe
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (150g) superfine / caster sugar
- 4 tbsp corn syrup (golden syrup)
- 2 tsp baking soda (bicarb of soda)
- 5.5 oz (150g) dark chocolate
- Sea salt flakes
Instructions
- Line a 20cm/8” square baking pan with baking paper. You’ll need to work quickly when the sugar is hot, so measure the baking soda and be sure to have a candy thermometer and wooden spoon handy.
- In a large, heavy bottomed pan, stir the sugar and syrup together. Melt them over a low/medium heat, checking with a candy thermometer until it reaches 150C/300F (hard-crack stage).
- Remove the hot sugar mixture from the heat, add the baking soda and quickly beat it in with a wooden spoon - be careful as the mixture will foam up and be very very hot!
- Immediately pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan, then leave it to set at room temperature.
- When it has cooled and set, cut or break it into shards.
- Melt the chocolate in a microwave or in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, but don’t let the water touch the bottom of the bowl.
- Dip the shards of honeycomb into the melted chocolate and sprinkle with a few flakes of sea salt. Allow the chocolate to set.
Recipe Tips
- Be sure to gather all the ingredients and tools before you start. Once the toffee mixture is hot it's a very quick process!
- When the sugar syrup begins to darken and reaches the hard crack stage, it's not long until it could burn. Work quickly (but carefully!) and take the pan off the heat.
- Once the baking soda (bicarb of soda) is added to the oozy hot toffee mixture, it will fluff up and grow more than double in size. So choose a large or high sided pot.
- It's important that your sugar is the right temperature or stage.
- You can still make honeycomb without a thermometer - just scroll up for the method to determine hard crack stage without a thermometer.
Making honeycomb without a thermometer
Although a candy thermometer makes it easier to make homemade honeycomb, you can still make it without one. You'll just need to test the hot sugar syrup in cold water to reach the correct stage: hard crack stage.Hard crack stage
With a food thermometer, you can easily determine if your hot sugar syrup has reached hard crack stage: test with the thermometer until it reaches 300F/150C. To tell if your sugar syrup is at hard crack stage without a thermometer, you'll need a bowl of very cold water. Once the hot sugar mixture begins to darken, take a small teaspoonful and drop it into the bowl of cold water. Leave it for a few moments the reach into the water and pick up the syrup. If it's soft and pliable, then it's at soft ball stage and is not ready.Try again until the sugar syrup instantly hardens in the water and 'cracks'. Please see this great short video about the stages of sugar syrup.
Salty
How long will this keep for? Thank you
Kate Hackworthy
Hi, you can store it in a sealed container somewhere cool and dry (not the fridge). It will keep for at least week. If you want it to last longer, then coat it in melted chocolate and it will last a month.
Gail
Pretty good
rita
Tried making this for the first time tonight, DISASTER!!! It turned out flat, thin and hard enough to use as a slab in the yard. What did I do wrong?? I followed your recipe to a tee.
Kate Hackworthy
Hi, Rita, sorry it went wrong for you. It's the baking soda that makes it all lovely and light. What happened when you added it? It should have all fizzed up with air bubbles, which would ensure it's not flat and like a hard slab!
Jane
OMG I LOVE this honeycomb and have made this over xmas to give as gifts! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
taylor
these were so dreamy! i didnt know honeycomb was so easy to make!
Shelley
Can this be made with maple syrup rather than cirn syrup?
Kate Hackworthy
Hi Shelley
I haven't tested this recipe with maple syrup so you may be best looking for a maple honeycomb recipe online just in case the ratios are different.
Kate x
Noelle
These were a great small gift and treat for the holidays!!