Yield: 16 pieces

Honeycomb Candy Without Baking Soda: What the Sources Say

No source we opened shows honeycomb that foams without baking soda. Here is why, what baking powder, vinegar and citric acid do to the syrup, and a no-soda brittle card. Not tested by us.

Prep Time10 minutes

Cook Time15 minutes

Cooling and setting (our estimate)1 hour

Total Time1 hour 25 minutes

Ingredients

Honey almond brittle

• 1 1/4 cups (250 g) granulated sugar, 250 g at 200 g per cup
• 1/2 cup (170 g) honey, 170 g and about 120 ml; our conversion
• 1 1/2 cups (210 g) whole blanched almonds, unsalted, about 140 g per cup; our estimate; toast first

Instructions

Prepare

1. Toast the almonds. Line the pan with parchment. Toast the almonds in a dry pan over medium heat until they smell nutty, then spread them over the parchment in a single layer.

Cook the syrup

1. Melt the sugar and honey. Melt low and slow. Put the sugar and honey in the pot over medium heat and stir gently only until the sugar looks dissolved. Clip the thermometer to the side.
2. Cook to 300 F. Cook until the thermometer reads 300 F (149 C), the bottom of the hard-crack range, and take the pot off the heat. Do not drift past 310 F (154 C). Subtract 1 F for every 500 feet above sea level. There is no foam step here, so the syrup stays a flat, thick liquid.
3. Pour over the almonds. Pour the syrup over the almonds right away. Nudge the nuts into the syrup with the spatula if you need to, and do not spread it thin.

Set

1. Cool undisturbed. Leave the slab alone until it is fully cool and hard. This card counts 60 minutes, which is our estimate.
2. Break and store. Break the slab into about 16 pieces and move them to an airtight container right away. Honeycomb pulls moisture from the air, and brittle made from the same syrup may do the same.

Notes

Not tested by us. The sugar and honey amounts are the same as on our honeycomb card in the article on why honeycomb candy tastes like baking soda. The almond amount of 1 1/2 cups (210 g) is our estimate: Ask Nigella suggests about 75 g (3/4 cup) of almonds for an amount of syrup her page does not state.

Cooking to 300 F follows the Exploratorium hard-crack range. Prep, cook and cooling times, the yield of 16 pieces and the gram figures for almonds are our estimates. Gram figures for sugar and honey are our conversions at 200 g and 339 g per cup (USDA).

Nutrition values are estimates calculated from typical USDA FoodData Central values for sugar, honey and raw almonds, per 1 of 16 pieces. The almond values are typical USDA figures we did not source in our brief. The sodium is almost all from the honey, sugar and almonds, and no salt is counted.