Molding honeycomb (aka cinder toffee) for confections

[martin0642]

Hi all

 

So I'm thinking about adding a chocolate covered honeycomb to my menu for the run up to Christmas; but I'm wondering whether my plan would work. Ideally I would like to have small squares, dipped in chocolate, that can go in the boxes alongside the other moulded/dipped chocs.

 

My plan is to try decanting the honeycomb into a chocoflex mould and ...assuming I can get it out again...then dip in chocolate.

 

So I have two questions - (never having made honeycomb before I'll add...)

 

1. Would this work?  can foresee possible problems with either (a) getting actual cubes out rather than just digging out bits of honeycomb or (b) the bubbles dissapearing because the mould is so small.

 

2. If this doesn't work - how about smahing it into small pieces and mixing them with chocolate - and then pouring into the moulds (so you basically get a small chocolate with crunchy bits in it)

 

Thoughts?

[Kerry Beal]

The edges of most honey comb are hard and not really great for eating - so you really need the "hearts". I think that a Crunchie Bar (Canadian sponge toffee bar) is made in huge pieces and cut on a bandsaw or some other form of cutter into the pieces they need. I know that is what they do in the company that I do some consulting for - (they don't coat in chocolate though just cut into large chunks). We have been working on what to do with the scrap for them.

 

I've certainly done the smashing to bits and making bark or molds with it - so I suspect that might be your best bet if you want to include it in small manageable sized pieces. 

 

That or seeing if you can cut a bunch of equal sized squares with an electric carving knife (or a bandsaw)!

[gfweb]

Perhaps freeze it first?

[keychris]

I find honeycomb stupidly hard to cut evenly, so I usually end up just smashing it and dipping the chunks! It still tastes great

[martin0642]

Yeah getting even squares may be a tad more tricky than it's worth...I hadn't considered the fact that the edges get hard - thank you (as ever) Kerry!

 

I'll give it a go anyway, won't hurt to pour some into silico moulds and see what happens eh? However i think little honeycomb clusters may be a more interesting confection anyway.

 

Thank you all - I shall report back!

[martin0642]

Ok so I said i'd report back on the idea of moulding honeycom/cinder toffee/whatever you call it.....in a chocoflex mould.

Erm.....don't. Just don't.

 

It did kind of work - I set it up so i could pour some into the last row or two of the chocoflex mould and then the rest straight into a prepped tin. Never having made it before i was unprepared for how gloopy it is when pouring and that's the real issue. Trying to get an even amount in to even a couple of mould cavities was like trying to put rubber gloves on an octopus. Mildy amusing ...but otherwise pointless..if you imagine how well all the gloves would fit after trying that you'll have a rough idea of how neat the cubes of honeycomb were.

 

So I htink i'll stick with smashing it up into little pieces, mixing them with tempered chocolate and then piping that into the mould cavities to make little crunchy nuggets.

[teonzo]

You can always spend a huge amount of money and buy a waterjet cutting machine.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[keychris]

I wonder if that would work with honeycomb, given it's extremely attractive to moisture!

[teonzo]

Good question! Same as mine everytime I see their advertisings, they always show cut entremets, almost all entremets have a sponge layer, which will absorb moisture even if frozen. I've never seen one of those machines live in action in a pastry environment (I used industrial waterjets to cut metals, plastics and marbles, never food), so I don't know how they affect the food they cut.

Honestly speaking I think the bigger question is their economical viability. Considering how much they cost and the limited use, you need TONS of production before covering the investment. Plus there is the waste issue: the part under the waterjet just go wasted. If you cut square mignons 30x30 mm, with a 2 mm waterjet you get 14% waste, a bit much. Knives and guitars work as fine for straight cuts. I can understand that this machine would be the best way to get weird and fancy shapes. But you would need TONS of requests (plus considering that the weirder the shapes, the bigger the side wastes). I fail to see how this can be a viable investment for a pastry shop, but since their business is growing then there must be the buyers.

The only thing I would say is sure is that it's the only hope to cut honeycomb with precision. What result you get, I just don't know.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Kerry Beal]

I always wondered the same thing about those cutters - clearly they work - but I'm stumped as to how without soaking what they are cutting..

Edited October 19, 2016 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Here is what one site says - 

 

Is water retained in the product?

No, the amount of water used is negligible and the speed of the waterjet is so high that virtually no water is absorbed.

[pastrygirl]

6 hours ago, teonzo said:

You can always spend a huge amount of money and buy a waterjet cutting machine.

 

 

 

Teo

 

 

Whoa, that just blew my mind a little bit!  

[pastrygirl]

I wonder if a hot knife or wire cutter for cutting styrofoam would work.  I think you'd need one that went up to at least 300F to melt the sugar - or maybe less if it's a delicate foam?  I've never tried one, but it seems like it could be useful for chocolate or sugar work at the right temperatures.

[pastrygirl]

2 hours ago, teonzo said:

 plus considering that the weirder the shapes, the bigger the side wastes

 

For less waste, cut MC Escher shapes!

 

 

 

 

[martin0642]

Woah.......... that's kind of cool but I have to be honest - I'm not sure I'd want one! I guess if you have industrial levels of cake poduction then it may be useful - once it's paid for itself you'll be saving money on wages. But still....no.

 

As for the moulding honeycomb issue - I may be having a rethink. The problem was pouring it in a way that got enough into each cavity without just having a ton of it left on top. I tried some scraping but it was quite tricky..but if I set up for that I think it might actually work! The pieces I got out weren't overly hard around teh edges. Definitely an interesting idea...25mm square crunchie bars. Hmmm. I'm slightly torn because I think the crushed up honeycomb mixed with tempered chocolate may look more interesting - but if I can make it work the perfect little cubes would be awesome

 

I may come back to this

[chromedome]

Sometimes it's good to set a project aside for a little while, and come back to it with fresh eyes. You never know what your subconscious will come up with while you're working on other things.