Cinder Toffee

Cinder toffee, also called honeycomb, is really easy to make. The concept is to caramelize sugar, done over high heat, then add the bicarbonate of soda, which will be activated by the heat, and release carbon dioxide, creating bubbles in the sugar. You can see the honeycomb effect in the second picture. There are a couple of tricks to it, one is how to eyeball it that it is golden in colour enough to take off from the heat. The other is that, when it says it whooshes up, it really whooshes up, mine nearly went over the top of my saucepan before I poured it out onto the silicon sheet. I though, too, that I had ruined my saucepan, with the remainders of the toffee sticking to the sides, but it dissolved really easy in hot water. Make sure to stir the caramelized sugar immediately after you add the sodium bicarbonate, otherwise there will be really small patches of undissolved powder. How did it taste? Really good, not too sweet, this went over well as a dessert for Easter Sunday.

Cinder Toffee
Adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson
200g cane sugar
4 Tbsp golden corn syrup
1 Tbsp sodium bicarbonate

Line a large baking sheet with a Silpat (silicon baking sheet), or line a square baking pan with a piece of greased parchment. Stir the sugar and golden syrup together in a large saucepan, then bring to the boil. When it's a nice golden colour (a couple of minutes), take it off the heat and quickly stir in the bicarb. It will whoosh up. Turn this golden cloud onto your greased surface and wait until it's set (15 minutes).

Bash it up.