Hokey Pokey
Ever since I saw Nigella make Hokey Pokey (honeycomb candy), I've been curious about it, so today I finally got around to making it. According to her instructions, it should take about 3 minutes to get to the maple-syrupy-amber color you're looking for, and her instructions gave me the impression that it was 3 minutes from start to finish. So I tried it that way, and ended up with something more of a taffy-type consistency (which is what I thought would happen). (I should mention that I'm too lazy to look for the candy thermometer, otherwise I'd just heat the sugar/syrup mixture up to 300 and go from there).
Just now I tried it again, but set the timer for 4 minutes, after the sugar and syrup was all incorporated and boiling, and when the timer went off I tested the syrup with water to see if it was at the crack stage yet, and it was almost there. So I gave it a couple more seconds, and decided I'd pull it off of the heat anyway, since the smell was making me nervous, and sugar can go from caramel to scorched in just a few seconds. I pulled it off the heat, added the baking soda, and quickly whisked it in, then poured it on a pre-sprayed foil lined baking sheet.
I think it's going to work out this time, but we'll see.
I half-way wonder if it'll be tastier with brown sugar or some molasses.
Perfect cruch, perfect texture, tastes scorched. I wonder if it would work with 3 minutes of boiling instead of 4, but it's hard to say 'cause with 3 minutes of boiling it was still in a chewy stage. I'm not trying it again today.