This very easy to make candy goes by many names; cinder toffee, sponge candy, and my personal favorite, “hokey pokey,” but no matter what you call it, this eye-catching confection is a proven crowd-pleaser. And, that’s before you dip in in chocolate, as my British friends highly recommend.
It’s no big secret that people love sweet, crispy things, but this also features the most interesting melt-in-your-mouth texture, which is created by thousands of bubbles, trapped in the cooling sugar syrup. As you can see in the video, I did two batches with different amounts of baking soda, and while the second batch did look better, the first batch was crunchier, and didn’t have any kind of aftertaste.
Other than suffering a horrible burn, there’s not a lot that can go wrong with this recipe, as long as you heat the syrup to 300 F. I checked mine with a probe thermometer, although a candy thermometer that attaches to the side of the pan would be a lot easier. Some folks say you can simply go by appearance, and when the syrup goes from clear to slightly golden, it’s done, but that requires a certain amount of experience.
Another method to gauge the temperature is by dropping a little bit of the molten syrup in water to see if it instantly turns into rock candy. That will work, but since thermometers aren’t expensive, and every kitchen should have one, that really is the way to go. Regardless, as long as you promise to be careful, I really do hope you give this gorgeous, homemade honeycomb toffee a try soon. Enjoy!
In addition to sharing an easy, and beautiful edible holiday gift idea, I wanted to make this chocolate bark so I could test a simplified technique for tempering chocolate without a thermometer. It sounded too good to be true, but worked fairly well, which is the problem. Is fairly good, okay?
Properly tempered chocolate will snap when broken, and retain that gorgeous glossy sheen. Poorly tempered chocolate is sort of dull grey, and the texture is soft, and waxy. This was somewhere in the middle.
Using this method, you will get close to properly tempered chocolate, and you might get lucky, and actually end up with perfectly tempered chocolate, but in hindsight, since using a thermometer isn’t really hard, and the extra steps required not that strenuous, I’ll probably just do it the right way next time.
In fact, I may do a future chocolate truffle video as an excuse to show you the “professional” method, but in the meantime, check out this great article I found on Allrecipes, as well as this video from Monarch Media that does a good job of explaining the steps. There are also hundreds of other videos online that take you through the procedure. Regardless of which method you go with, quick and imprecise, or deliberate and exact, I stand by my assertion that this would make a great holiday gift. I hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!
Happy Halloween everybody! I hope you're all having a fun time celebrating! Some of you might remember a display of pumpkins I shared last year, from the downtown area of our village. I'm happy to say the tradition has continued! So, this year I have plenty more to share.
I'll share a few of my favorite daytime shots with you guys, then a few trick-or-treat stories, and then what these looked like at night.
The pumpkins were all lined up on bleachers.
Pumpkin seed eyebrows!
Jack Skellington
So, I took those pumpkin pics in the afternoon, before trick-or-treating. I'm glad they switched trick-or-treating to the evening around here. It's a little more spooky that way. My frog got the place of honor in the candy bowl this year!
Here's how much candy the frog was sitting in before...
And by the end of the night:
It looks like the frog really cleaned out that candy bowl. 😉 I'd say 75+ kids came by, judging by how much candy was gone. The frog was quite the hit with the kids and a few parents! Some kids told me I had a cute frog, one little girl asked "Who's this?" and another patted him on the head.
I sat out waiting for the kids, as a very bundled up witch. It was chilly out there, probably around 40° but at least the sun was out in the beginning. I was actually pretty warm with the many layers I had on over and under my outfit.
I had a wonderful time out there, handing candy to the kids. This year instead of spooky sounds, I had a CD of kids Halloween music going, and then what I'd call Halloween lounge music. If you'd like to hear the lounge singer I listened to that evening, I found the album on YouTube. Here's one song from it:
What was hilarious to me was all the kids who were dancing in the street to the music! I would definitely choose dance music instead of sound effects like frogs croaking and clocks ticking in the future. It's a lot more pleasant for me to listen to for three hours!
One of the dancers was this kid doing breakdancing type moves. There was a pack of them, maybe middle school age boys and they were all dressed like rappers. These looked like 90s rappers to me. Not like I'm really up on what's new with rap. I went on to show my age by asking one of them if he was supposed to be in Run DMC. He had the hat/glasses/chain. And he was like "Huh? Who?" So I asked again. "Nope" As the boys left I heard one say "What did she ask you?" "She asked if I was DMC" "Huh?" Haha!
In other funniness, some of the parents thought I was a prop and were cautioning their kids about coming to the door. There had been a lull at one point and I was nodding off in the chair. So I probably did look pretty prop-like. That veil on my hat was down too. So I hear some voice in the distance saying "I don't know if you should go over there. I think that's one of those life-size props" She probably thought I was going leap up at her kid or something. So I woke up and gave them a wave. She said "But you were sitting so still!"
In other funny parent stories, several told their kids "Don't be afraid, she's a good witch." And this takes the cake: "Don't be afraid she's a good witch. See, she's offering you candy." Haha! How many stories of a wicked witch start with her offering the kids a treat? The witch in Hansel and Gretel with her candy house. The Wicked Witch who gives Snow White the poisoned apple. Not to mention all the stories I heard growing up about strangers offering you candy. Which I know is logic you're supposed to throw out the window when you're trick-or-treating. But still it struck me so funny.
Some parents came dressed in a costume to match their kids. There was a hilarious father/son duo dressed as Mario and Luigi. The kid was young, so there was tiny Mario with a giant Luigi, complete with giant foam belly! The kid high-fived his dad on the way and nearly bounced off that fake belly. There was also a Little Red Riding Hood who came to the door with a large, furry wolf. The wolf had the Grandma hat and dress/apron on and even spectacles. You really couldn't see who was under there. I gave the kid some candy and then said "Grandma Wolf, you have some too!" because the adult was actually dressed up more than the kid. To my surprise, a deep, manly voice came out of the wolf. "Thanks" and what was clearly a man's hand reached out of the furry sleeve. So that was a funny surprise. I don't know if I really thought Grandma was under there or what.
This is more or less what I saw. Except with an apron.
There was a funny sister and brother who came to the door. The girl was one of those lucky kids with the down coat over her costume. I could see a bit of skirt coming out of the bottom. She said in her best mysterious voice "Hello Mother" and I said "Oh? Are you a witch?" Thinking that if she wasn't, I wouldn't know what to do with this one. She said she was a witch and kind of winked at me. It was so cute. So I got to be Mother Witch.
And then her brother comes up with this really creepy mask peeking out of a hunchback outfit. This black robe over a lump of a shoulder. The mask under that robe looked like some old skin stitched together. And I couldn't even see the eyes behind it! It was seriously creepy. So I said "Oooh you're scary! What are you?" And he says "You know... I don't know!" This always cracks me up when they don't know. So I said "Well, you're very scary whatever you are." The kid walks away and then turns around and bows saying "Thank you M'Lady" Those two were a trip!
What else was a trip was the little kid dressed as a werewolf with the full furry mask and plaid shirt outfit. He couldn't see well at all in that mask and the light was getting dim. I saw him walk into a tree!
Oh and speaking of people who may have had questionable eyesight, I saw a man in one of those fox heads! You know those mascot looking heads they were selling at Target this year. He actually looked pretty cool.
Here's the one scary moment of the night. As it was getting darker, near the end of trick-or-treat I went inside. Because you have to eat at some point. A couple little kids were at the door, but there was someone in the full "Ghostface" Scream costume in the middle of the walkway, just standing there. This person was more adult sized. So I gave the kids some candy and the person kept standing there silently. I ended up just walking over to the Scream person and giving them some candy. Then they left. I'm going to assume they went with the kids? That was a genuinely freaky moment, especially with it being dark. I guess those movies stuck with me!
So onto the jack-o-lantern display at night! How cool is this? They had a lot of participation this year.
I think they look great with that lit up gazebo. I'll probably pick one of these pics for my computer wallpaper later today.
Check out the spooky moon up there!
Is this one a snake?
One of my favorites:
I thought this was a unibrow at first, but I think now that it's glasses.
Alice Cooper!
Cute bowtie man:
Owl eyes?
I like how some of these lights came out red. I have no idea why they would, since all the pumpkins are strung through the back with the same string of lights.
Intense!
Eww...
Jack Skellington
Cat-eye eyeliner pumpkin?
They had some "Halloween Radio" music playing that must have been streamed from somewhere. If there really is a Halloween Radio station on the actual radio, I should be listening to it! This kid was dancing and dancing in the gazebo, flinging her little witch hat around. It was so cute.
And the spooky moon that night!
Well, I wish you all a very Happy Halloween! I'd like to hear some of your trick-or-treat stories or what you're up to today!
