Honeycomb

After 2 trial runs, i've just suceeded in making honeycomb.

Burnt the 1st one, second one didn't rise enough, 3rd one has filled a casserole dish & when its set i'm going to break it up & cover the lumps in chocolate.

100gm sugar
2 forks of golden syrup
Stir that over a low heat till crack point is reached, just as it goes straw coloured & before it goes dark, burnt coloured.

Take off heat & stir in 1 heaped tea spoon of Bicarbonate of Soda.
soon as its frothed up pour into pan lined with greaseproof & lob it in the snow to cool.

 

Note to self, use rice paper next time, greaseproof sticks:dh:

 

Thanks for that Ziggy.
I had a deprived childhood but we got Honeycombe on a Saturday afternoon - the only treat of the week :cry:
Saturdays tea was brown bread and fresh fruit - my Mother was convinced we didn't need anything else as we had been ruining our appetites on rubbish.
In between Saturdays we fought each other to drink the water the cabbage had been boiled in. A big treat :yez:
My Mother was a woman well ahead of her times - and she wasn't wrong about everything. We are all still slim with good teeth

 

Blimey Alice, that sounds a bit of a nightmare.

Broke it into lumps & covered it in chocolate. Melted the chocolate with some veg suet as i didn't know what shortening was.

 

Thanks for that, Ziggy. Is the snow essential or can one improvise?

My husband still harbours resentments against his parents for sending him to his room on account of his refusal to eat cherry flavoured jelly. I think if I'd made my kids go to their rooms whenever they refused to eat anything I wouldn't have seen them much as small children.

 

Fridge would do Clare, if its glopping like vesuvius then its too hot & already burnt. Its litterallly seconds between straw coloured, whip it off the heat & stir in the bicarb & pour before burnt offering.

Cherry flavoured jelly could have given him BSE, better off with Alices cabbage water.

Be a lot of that this year with the Cabbage challenge, you signed up for that yet ?

 

Missed out on the cabbage challenge. Will check it out. Is it like Mastermind for vegetables?

 

Climb on board & join us in the first ever Gardeners Corner international (well Canada as well) growing competition.

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/walking-with-cabbages-challenge-t30826.html

The more, the merrier :gnthb:

 

Lard

 

Aah, glad I didn't use that then.

 

Lard is made from animal fats and shortening is made from vegetable oils. If I remember correctly, Trex is shortening.

I watched the Hairy Bikers make honeycomb the other week and thought I might have a go. I wonder if I could use maple syrup instead of treacle?

 

Maple Syrup sounds good Victoria.

Trex was never the same after Marc Bolan died.

 

Perhaps latterly; but, originally "shortening" was most definately lard. In ye olde days shortcrust pastry got it's "shortness" by using half butter and half lard. At least, that was what was used before "Trex" was invented

 

Also true "lard" is not just any animal fat; it is rendered pork fat.

 

Vegetable shortening 'Crisco' by Proctor & Gamble was invented in 1911 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where my t'other is from. Trex was introduced in the 30s. The other British one is Cookeen which has been around since 1957. It is used in soft frostings for cakes. I have always known of it but I don't think it was so popular in the UK, as it isn't here. I can only get it here at shops selling British products such as Iceland or Apólonia, a Portuguese supermarket specialising in foreign foods.