Vegan Chocolate Honeycomb (Gluten-Free)

Easy to make and delicious to eat, these golden orange honeycomb pieces are coated in thick dark chocolate to be even better than the “crunchy” chocolate bar. They are naturally vegan, gluten-free and don’t require a sugar thermometer.

I bet you have a favourite chocolate bar and a few memories to go with it. My favourite bar growing up had to be a “crunchy”. It would be the one I asked for if we popped to the shops, went to the cinema, or had some friends round and we could choose a “treat”. I loved how sweet, sticky and crunchy the bars were all covered in lovely, sweet chocolate. I didn’t use to find them overly sweet, just the right amount of sweetness. It took a few attempts to make this recipe perfect but now I am in love with them and all the trials, mess and sticky honeycomb is worthwhile.

Having loved dark chocolate for a long time now, not just because it’s usually vegan, I find milk chocolates very sweet so these homemade Vegan Chocolate Honeycomb are the perfect balance: 

• Sticky sweet honeycomb
• Light, airy and crunchy
• Covered in dark thick chocolate
• They are really easy to make
• Do not require a sugar thermometer
• Ready to eat in about an hour
• Naturally vegan, gluten-free and nut-free

What makes these Vegan Chocolate Honeycomb vegan? Honeycomb is naturally vegan as it just uses a few simple ingredients, it is the chocolate coating that makes them not vegan-friendly. There are only 3 (or 4) key ingredients for these bars:

• Caster sugar: the white sugar works best for this recipe.
• Golden sugar: the golden hue and the thick sticky texture is best for making these honeycomb bars. I also did try these with maple syrup but golden syrup works best.
• Water: this isn’t really an ingredient as such, but is important for the best texture honeycomb.
• Bicarbonate of soda: this is the magic that turns a thick gooey caramel-like syrup into fluffy, airy and light honeycomb. This is the perfect amount to add enough volume without being able to taste the honeycomb.

There are a few essential steps to follow when making this Vegan Chocolate Honeycomb that are easy but important to follow:

• Use a large pan: and then use a pan bigger than that. Once you add the bicarbonate of soda, the mix really increases in volume and can over-spill you pan if it is not big enough.
• Stir and then don’t stir: you can stir the sugar until it dissolves but when you begin the 12-15 minutes of high-simmering, do not stir the mixture any more.
• The “hard crack” stage: as this recipe does not use a sugar thermometer, we don’t check the temperature. You can test the syrup mixture is ready when you drop a small amount of the mix into cold water, and it will bubble up and so hard. If this doesn’t happen, keep going.
• Whisk in one direction: once you’ve added the bicarbonate of soda, only whisk in one direction to allow to air to work through the honeycomb evenly.
• Work quickly: once you’ve added the bicarbonate of soda, be careful as the mix is hot but then divide the mix between a lined tray or silicone moulds.

Then you must allow the Vegan Chocolate Honeycomb to cool down fully. If you are using small silicone moulds, this will only take 30-60 minutes or if you use one larger tray, it will take 1-2 hours. As mentioned, you can make this is one larger parchment-lined dish or silicone moulds. For the neatest bars, use a silicone mould, as the honeycomb is easy enough to break apart or slice, but difficult to slice neatly!

To make the “crunchy” style chocolate covered bars, I used silicone moulds (you can find them easily online), and for the group shot of the broken up honeycomb, I used a parchment-lined dish. Both work really well and the taste is the same.

These Vegan Chocolate Honeycomb really are my favourite chocolate bar creation and once covered in thick dark chocolate, allow them to set in the fridge. They are light, fluffy, sweet, sticky, gooey, crunchy and chocolatey all in each mouthful. They take a few steps to make and are much easier than you’d think.

These Vegan Chocolate Honeycomb are great to make for little and big ones, for snacking on, for desserts and to impress non-vegan friends and family.

If you are looking for other chocolate recipes, how about my:

• Dark Chocolate Vegan Brownie Cookies
• Chocolate Chip Caramel Cookie Cups
• Easy Vegan Chocolate Tiffins
• Double Biscoff Caramel Bars
• Homemade Snickers Bites

I look forward to hearing what you think of these Vegan Chocolate Honeycomb so please let me know what you think. If you make these chocolate bars, please tag me in your creations as I love to see them – I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With vegan chocolate honeycomb love x