Chocolate-Covered Honeycomb Candy

[Updated with new photos]
Newsflash: I'm a foreigner. Don't deport me just yet - I'm bringing you candy! Here in part 2 of candy week at Baking and Mistaking, and I'm recreating one of my favorite childhood candy bars. Technically this is called honeycomb candy. It is sold in England as a "Crunchie" bar, and in Australia as "Violet Crumble" (don't ask me why). But when I moved to the US I realized that no such chocolate bar existed here. Since then I've had to rely on visitors and traveling family members to get my crunchie fix - but no more!

What's great about this candy (aside from it's amazing taste) is that it's made out of all things you most likely already own. It's what you do with them that makes this out of this world. Cooking down sugar, honey and corn syrup (consult your dentist before consuming), then removing from the heat to dump in baking soda, makes the mixture swell and foam up to four times its size, creating the little air bubbles and aeration that are so iconic to the candy.

It's crucial when your candy is cooking to not stir or touch it. You just have to let it cook and bubble away until it becomes a deep golden brown - a touch darker than the last picture above. 

Once you get there, and you whisk in the baking soda, just pour it on to a baking sheet to cool. Mine wasn't really even, but I left it anyway. If you try and smooth it out more you'll lose some of the aeration.

Once it's cool, you just smash it into pieces for covering. You can try and cut it into more equal shapes, but, well, I doubt you'll succeed. It's just not meant to be. If shapes are important to you, you'd have to use some sort of mold - but I think it would be very difficult to move that quickly.

It is beyond sweet, beyond delicious, and after taking a chocolate bath, perfectly gift-able and store-able. Note: if you don't temper your chocolate, after about 3 days white streaks and dots may appear (still edible) though). If you think you will eat it all up by then, then never mind. 


Tip of the Day:When you're lining a baking pan or sheet with parchment paper, it often helps to spray the empty pan first, to help the parchment stick down in the pan.


Recipe:  
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup corn syrup
2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon baking soda
~24 ounces milk or semi-sweet chocolate
1 tablespoon vegetable oil


Cover a baking sheet in parchment paper and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside. 
Place the honey, corn syrup, sugar and water in a very large saucepan (I used 5.5 quarts). Whisk to combine. 
Heat the mixture over medium heat, until golden brown and bubbling, and at 300 F on a candy thermometer. Do NOT stir while the mixture is cooking. Keep a careful eye on it - the timing will vary, but it should take in the 10 minute range. Remove from the heat and dump in the baking soda. Begin to whisk, and watch the mixture foam up to quadruple the size. Quickly pour it out onto the baking sheet. 
Let sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes until rock hard. Break up into chunks. 
Melt the chocolate and oil together in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Dip the pieces in the chocolate, scraping off any extra (but making sure all sides are covered). Let dry on parchment paper.