Honeycomb/Crunchies Revisted

I wrote about crunchies (honeycomb, hokey pokey, whatever you call it) last week.  For the last couple of weeks, I've been trying to perfect the recipe. I've made it and it was very close to the ideal,  I've made it and it has melted on my kitchen counter, I've made it and it was burnt (which my friend Julie referred to as "toasted" and thought it was just dandy, but I knew wasn't quite right)  I've had the bubbles be so big it caused the crunchies to shatter when I got near them  to cover with chocolate, but I am here to tell you, I've cracked the code. 

And it is delicious. 

Completed crunchies

Naked crunchies

More gratuitous crunchie shots

What's in them

Val's crunchie recipe

Hardware: 

Fairly large saucepan

foil or parchment paper

whisk

candy thermometer

Software: See above

3/4 cup of Sugar

3 tbs Golden Syrup

1 1/2 tsp of baking soda

Chocolate chips  (milk chocolate is classic, semi-sweet is good, but makes a VERY rich sweet)

Procedure: 

First, lay the foil/ parchment paper on a heatproof surface. Mix the syrup and the sugar with a fork in the saucepan. Turn the burner on to medium high heat, and cook the sugar until reaches 300 degrees. Do NOT STIR. Swirl the pot around if you feel like you need to mix it, but do not stir.  Unless you are really good at determining what 300 degrees is, (if you frequently make candy) Use a candy thermometer to check when the sugar mix is ready. When reaches temp, turn off the heat, put in the baking soda, and stir like crazy until soda is incorporated. Working as fast as you can (the sugar will be doubling or tripling in size, pour out onto your parchment paper or foil.  Now walk away from it for 20 minutes.   You can take this time to melt your chocolate, either in a double boiler, or in the microwave. 

once the honeycomb is cool,  break apart, and dip in chocolate to cover.  Return to foil, and stick into the fridge to set the chocolate for at least 10 minutes. 

Enjoy!

*are you noticing my pictures are more awesome than usual? yes? they are.  I took all of these using my Dad's awesome Canon Rebel