H is for Hokey Pokey!

 

It's been years since I made hokey pokey (not to be confused with that annoying song about the hokey tokey!).

If you've never heard of hokey pokey before or perhaps you know it by another name, it's honeycomb toffee.  It's the inside of a Cadbury Crunchie bar & similar to the inside of a Nestle Violet Crumble.  It's super easy to make but you have to act quick & have your buttered tray at the ready to pour the hokey pokey into before it sets.  The most exciting part of making hokey pokey is when you add the baking soda (bi-carb soda) at the end & it froths up!  All very scientific.

 

For my New Zealand readers, you will of course be very familiar with the good old Tip Top hokey pokey ice cream.  It was never at the top of my list of favourite ice cream flavours, but when I realised you couldn't get it in the UK, I started to miss it!  Indeed, according to Wikipedia hokey pokey ice-cream is "a standard example of Kiwiana".  That made me smile.  What a good example it is eh! 

 

Anyone interested in some hokey pokey history?  Well, the word itself was never originally associated with honeycomb.  It was actually used as a general slang word for ice cream in the 19th & 20th centuries in New York & some parts of Britain by ice cream street vendors or 'hokey pokey men' as they were also known as.

 

One final thing - if you've never tried making hokey pokey, then I urge you to give it a go!  It's fun, easy, quick to make & did I mention that it's very tasty indeed.  It would also be a great home made gift idea if you bagged it up in cellophane bags & tied them with pretty ribbon.

 

Ingredients

 

4 tablespoons white sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1 teaspoon baking soda (bi-carb soda)

 

What to do (couldn't be easier!) 

1. Grease a tin by rubbing it well with butter.  Make sure the butter is all over the base & sides as you don't want any hokey pokey to stick to the tin.  Have your tin at the ready to pour the hokey pokey into immediately after you've added the baking soda.
2. Place sugar & golden syrup into a medium sized saucepan & heat gently, stirring constantly until the sugar has melted.
3. Increase heat & bring to the boil.  Boil for 2 mins stirring as necessary to prevent it from burning.
4. Remove from heat, add in the baking soda & stir VERY QUICKLY!  The mixture will froth up.  Pour the hokey pokey into your tin AT ONCE as it will quickly start to set.
5. Refrigerate until set & then break up into rough pieces.

Don't worry about trying to flatten the hokey pokey in the tin, just pour in it any which way because you can break it up into pieces once it's cold.

 

Store in an airtight container.