Peppermint and white chocolate conjure up one of the flavours of Christmas to me. I have no idea why. It’s a pairing I hadn’t thought about combining them until a few years back and now, I can’t get enough of it at this time of year.
This year I decided to be a bit adventurous and make peppermint flavoured honeycomb. You know, puff candy, hokey pokey, it has loads of different names, but I call it honeycomb. I’ve never made it before as it seems like a bit of kitchen alchemy. Hot sugar, syrup and bicarbonate of soda - that’s it!
I’d never heard of anyone adding peppermint extract to the mixture so it was a bit of a gamble, as I thought the heat of the molten sugar may kill off any trace of mintiness. But as I added it toward the end, the flavor stuck around.
And when I had bashed away at the set slab of honeycomb, I dipped each piece in some white chocolate and topped, purely for decorative purposes, some crushed candy cane.
It’s really quite easy if you don’t mind boiling hot sugar, and the result is like a minty Crunchie – how bad can that be (as Ina would say)?
Ingredients:200 grams caster sugar75 ml golden syrup2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda1 teaspoon peppermint extract200 grams white chocolate1 candy came, crushed
Adapted from BBC Good Food
Method:Line a 9” square tin with greaseproof paper and grease the paper liberally.In a large saucepan place the sugar and syrup. Over low heat, melt the sugar into the syrup so it is all liquid. Don’t let It bubble until all the sugar has dissolved. Then turn the heat to medium and let it bubble until it gets to be a slightly darker amber color (it will be golden syrup color before that).
Add the teaspoon of peppermint and stir. Take care as the mint may sting your eyes as the heat has quite an effect on it. Lastly, off the heat add the bicarb and stir! It will foam wildly but keep stirring until the bicarb is incorporated and then scrape it into your prepared tin.
It will continue to darken and bubble for a while but set it aside for an hour and a half to cool and set. Once set remove from the tin and peel off the paper. With a toffee hammer or kitchen mallet bash the honeycomb square into bitesize chunks (see above).
Melt the white chocolate in a bowl, over a pan of simmering water. Then dip each piece of honeycomb into the chocolate, covering completely. Place on a baking tray lined with more greaseproof paper and sprinkle with some crushed candy cane. Allow to cool in the fridge until set.
And there you have white chocolate peppermint honeycomb. Perfect little festive treat with a cuppa.
