OH HONEY - SUGAR SUGAR

Hokey Pokey, How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

 

Autumn has arrived.   The weather is crisp, winter coats have been donned and we have abandoned our Summer Selves.  There are three tried and tested antidotes to the October Slumps: excellent jumpers, boots and comfort food.  Having supped of the first two antidotes to the detriment of my bank account; it’s time for comfort food.   

 

As my last post attests, baking is a cruel mistress.  BBC’s The Great British Bake Off lends further weight.  I’ve just watched a grown woman cry over a cake that looked like a brain and can’t guarantee that I wouldn’t have done the same.

Nonetheless when you win at baking, you win hands-down.  And victory tastes sweet (boom).

My latest foray into Nigella Lawson’s “How to be a Domestic Goddess” – not a straightforward endeavour at all by the way – was prompted by a desperate last-minute attempt to bring a decent dessert around to a friend’s for dinner.  Having absolutely no inclination to start down the path of cakes after the previous week’s disaster; Nigella’s recipe for “Cinder Toffee”, "hokey-pokey", or honeycomb to me, was a go-er.    

The ingredients were few (caster sugar, golden syrup and bicarbonate of soda), the methodology looked straightforward and yet my cynicism remained.     

                        

The game begins by mixing the sugar and golden syrup in a large saucepan, off the heat.  The mixture looked decidedly dodgy – I was concerned.  

                                 

I then heated this mixture over a low heat until it began to bubble.  Nigella advised a low to medium heat but I was erring on the side of baking conservatism.  Once the mixture turned a dark golden-brown colour (but not too dark – burnt sugar is no fun for anyone and it's a fine line); I added the tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda and watched the magic happen.  Or rather watched it “turn into a whooshing cloud of aerated pale gold”  as Nigella breathes seductively.  As soon as the bicarb has been completely stirred in and the mixture is looking like the contents of some type of delectable cholesterol-defying cauldron; pour the mixture into an extremely well-greased tin.   

                       

  

I really do mean well-greased – this one is a clinger.

                          

I would also like to comment at this point as to the eye-watering heat of the sugar mixture.  CAUTION - scorchio does not even touch this.     

I left the mixture to set for a couple of hours – three is probably the optimum – and then set to bashing it up into mouth-watering honeycomb rubble.  It is impossible not to eat a few pieces (or half the batch) at this point but the end product creates a suitable impression if you can manage to restrain yourself and share it with friends. 

                               

                               

  

We choose to eat ours with Cornish ice-cream and toffee sauce – health food this is not.  Baking therapy, it is. Delish.  

                                

Recipe below - good luck!

Hokey Pokey

Ingredients

·         100g caster sugar     

·         4 tablespoons of golden syrup     

·         1 ½  teaspoons  of bicarbonate of soda

Method

1.       Put the sugar and syrup into a saucepan and stir together to mix. You mustn't stir once the pan's on the heat, though.

2.       Place the pan on the heat and let the mixture first melt, then turn to goo and then to a bubbling mass the colour of maple syrup - this will take 3 minutes or so.

3.       Off the heat, whisk in the bicarbonate of soda and watch the syrup turn into a whooshing cloud of aerated pale gold. Turn this immediately onto a piece of reusable baking parchment or greased foil.

4.       Leave until set and then bash at it, so that it splinters into many glinting pieces.