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Dessert

Honeycomb Candy

A sweet, airy candy made by cooking sugar and glucose, then pulling and shaping into a honeycomb structure.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Honeycomb Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sugar base

  1. Combine sugar and glucose with enough water to dissolve in a kettle.

  2. Cook the mixture to 285°F (140°C).

  3. Pour the cooked mixture onto a slab.

  4. When cool enough to handle, pull the candy on a hook.

  5. Add flavor and color as desired.

Shape and aerate

  1. Twist the air out.

  2. Flatten the candy to 1 inch thick and 1 foot long.

  3. Place an iron pipe in the center of the candy.

  4. Roll the candy around the pipe.

  5. Seal the left end of the candy.

  6. Have a helper at the other end of the candy.

  7. Pump air into the pipe with small bellows.

  8. Slowly pull the pipe out while pumping air.

  9. Pump air into the hole left by the pipe after the pipe is removed.

  10. Quickly pull the candy to about 10 feet long.

  11. Seal the end to keep air in.

  12. Bring both ends together.

  13. Pull again to stretch the candy to the length of your table if possible.

Cool and break

  1. Let the candy cool quickly.

  2. Break the candy into 4-inch lengths.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the main crisp, brittle structure of the candy once cooked and cooled.
Glucose
Helps prevent sugar crystals from forming, keeping the candy smooth and less grainy.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture to 285°F (140°C). The cooking temperature sets how much water remains in the sugar, which determines whether the candy turns out brittle and crisp. Undercooked sugar stays sticky and soft, while overcooked sugar becomes too hard or discolored.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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