Hokey Pokey Ice-Cream for #FoodOfTheWorld

This month, food of the world is traveling to New Zealand. I did not do much research on the cuisine and decided the recipe the moment it is New Zealand for this month. Though the recipe was decided long ago, I made it only today. I had bookmarked this recipe year and a half ago when we did A-Z countries, around the world in 30 days. Then, I decided to go with ANZAC cookies for New Zealand and this ice-cream remained in my bookmarks.

Hokey pokey is a flavoring added to ice-cream and it usually goes well with vanilla ice-cream. Hokey pokey is honeycomb like brittle or toffee, that is served with ice cream. In fact, I came across couple of recipes that called it honeycomb toffee and in New Zealand it is hokey pokey.

It is prepared with caramelized sugar and golden syrup or honey. Once the syrup reaches a hard ball consistency, baking soda is added to achieve the honeycomb texture. The syrup is then poured on a baking sheet to cool. This brittle/toffee is then broken to pieces and served with ice-cream.

I was a bit intimidated with the preparation but it is actually very easy once we figure out the science behind it. The intimidating part of the preparation is the way the caramel syrup rises when baking soda is added. I never tasted hokey pokey and I liked it with ice-cream. Husband thought it was ok.

Update (May 18) - I had some leftover hokey pokey after serving it with ice-cream. I ate most of it without ice-cream. Last night husband saw it and finished all of it and said he likes it better this way than with the ice-cream. So, this can be eaten as it is or served with ice-cream.

Source: Global Table Adventure
Total Time: 25 - 30 minutes
Cooking: 5-8 minutes
Cooling: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

½ cup Sugar
¼ cup Golden Syrup or Honey (I used golden syrup)
1 tsp. Baking Soda, sifted (sifting baking soda is optional but would recommend)
Vanilla Ice-Cream for serving

Preparation:

Line a baking sheet a keep it ready. I lined mine with a parchment paper.
Take sugar and golden syrup in a big saucepan. I used a 2 ½ quart pan. One and half quart pan can also be used but it is better to go with a big pan as the syrup balloons up once baking soda is added to syrup.
Place a candy thermometer in the pan.
Melt sugar and make a syrup by cooking it on medium flame, whisking constantly.
Cook for 5 - 8 minutes or until thermometer reads 300F or until a hard ball is formed when drops of syrup are dropped in very cold or ice cold water. It took about 8 minutes on my stove and thermometer read 340F to get the hard ball consistency. The recipe called for 5 minutes and 300F but it took longer. Hence I recommend doing a ice cold water test when thermometer reads 300F.
Remove the candy thermometer.
Add baking soda and whisk immediately until soda is evenly mixed.
Once the syrup rises and balloons up, stop whisking else it will deflate.
Immediately pour on the baking sheet.
Let cook completely. Break it into small pieces and serve with vanilla ice-cream.

Note:

I would recommend sifting baking soda.
Do a ice water / cold water test to check if the syrup forms a hard ball when dropped in water. This test is crucial to ensure the syrup has reached the right consistency. Thermometer may read 300F but the thermometer might be in a cold spot or a hot spot and syrup might not have reached the right consistency. If the syrup is under cooked, toffee won't harden.

This day in 2015: Indonesian Fried Chicken ~ Ayam Penyet
This day in 2013: Homemade Pizza with Coriander Chutney

Please add your New Zealand recipes to the linky below and visit my co-host to see what they are cooking.

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