Honeycomb for Spring

I promised myself I wouldn't discuss the weather here; how we're in day nine hundred and twelve of the winter of 2018. I wasn't going to be like everyone else and talk about how obnoxious this never ending cold and snow is and how it's enough to make you want to pack in your shovel and move to Florida. That's right, this winter has been so long and demoralizing, I've considered moving to Florida. shudders

But on this day in late, late April, after having hardly any spring weather, when the sun decided to come out of hibernation and the temperature was hanging out in the mid 50's for a few hours, well, I broke that promise to myself. If we don't make meme after meme about this long ass winter -coordinated with screenshots from Frozen- if we're not constantly complaining about how spring decided to retire indefinitely, how will we know it happened? We must never forget.

Today was my first outdoor run in a short-sleeve shirt in probably six months. Usually I exaggerate and embellish everything, but this is not one of those times. Being outside wearing only a short-sleeve shirt, can you even believe it? It's hardly believable to me, and I lived it. It got me super pumped for the summer, when I'll be running outside in shorts and tees, red faced and slick with sweat, grumbling about the heat. If I write one complaint about any upcoming heat we have this summer, please remind me of this post. Then punch me in the face.

It seemed only right to share a warm weather recipe in honor of today, one month after the first official day of spring when it's finally starting to feel like spring. No, it's not ice cream, even though I could go for some right now. Damn, I should have done an ice cream recipe. Enough with the ice cream talk, before I go and buy myself a pint of Cherry Garcia in honor of 420.

Honeycomb isn't necessarily a warm weather treat; actually, because it's a sugary confection, you definitely don't want to make it in hot, humid temperatures because it will be sticky AF. But let's not kid ourselves, we're still months away from hot, humid temperatures. Honey makes you think of bees, which are a quintessential symbol of spring, so that's where the inspiration to post this today came from. Making candy might seem intimidating, but it's really not. A candy thermometer will help tremendously, or you can try to eyeball the done-ness by color. Either way, you should give honeycomb a try because it's candy and it looks really cool.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup minus one tablespoon light corn syrup*

2 cups sugar

3 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, sifted

Instructions:

1. Line a medium/large cookie sheet with parchment or silicone mat.

2. In a large sauce pot, combine honey, corn syrup and sugar with just enough water to stir and combine. Brush down the sides of the pot with a clean brush to prevent crystallization.

3. Cook over high heat to 305 - 310 F. If you don't have a candy thermometer, determine by the color. For reference, sugar will start to caramelize at about 320 F; you know how dark caramel is, right? Stop cooking when the sugar is amber colored, before caramelization starts.

4. Remove mixture from heat and whisk in baking soda. Once baking soda is evenly combined, flip mixture out onto your parchment/silpat lined tray. DO NOT SPREAD OUT OVER SHEET TRAY, this will deflate the cell structure. The honeycomb will deflate some as it cools; once cooled, break or cut into pieces. Store in airtight containers.

*sorry for the obnoxious measurement, but if you measure out a half cup and take one tablespoon out, it's a lot easier than measuring out seven tablespoons, like I was doing initially