Ladies, a Plate

Hokey Pokey

Although some British recipe books have recipes for Hokey Pokey, they seem usually to be made using caramelised sugar, without the essential golden syrup that gives Antipodean Hokey Pokey its delicious crunchy stickiness. This is our classic recipe; it needs no alteration.

Getting ready

1. You will need a heavy-based, straight-sided saucepan, preferably 5 in/12 cm deep and a simmer mat. Grease a shallow metal tin with butter and sift the baking soda through a tea strainer into a cup.

Making the Hokey Pokey

1. Put the sugar and golden syrup in the saucepan on a simmer mat over gentle heat and bring them slowly to the boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. The sugar will take about 6 minutes to dissolve.
2. Continue to simmer over a very low heat, stirring. After about 4 minutes the syrup should be a very dark gold and smell faintly of caramel - not like burned sugar.
3. Remove the saucepan from the stove and put it on a heatproof surface. Drop in the baking soda and mix quickly with the wooden spoon. The mixture will fluff up dramatically. Keep stirring until the soda is all incorporated, with no white streaks. In a few seconds it will turn a paler gold and be very frothy. Tip it quickly into the greased tin and leave it the way it falls - if you try to spread it out you will crush the bubbles that give it its honeycomb centre.
4. Leave the Hokey Pokey for about 30 minutes to harden and cool completely before breaking it up into shards. - Store airtight, but try to eat it within 24 hours or stickiness will take over from crunchiness.