Honeycomb is one of the few inclusions people can name with their eyes shut, and these are the bite sized version: pieces of cinder toffee between 10 and 20mm, wrapped in a thin shell of vegetable fat. Bite into one and you get the same honeyed snap and the same airy, crumbling middle as our plain chunks, just at a size that scoops and portions evenly.

Honeycomb is sugar, and sugar pulls in moisture from whatever surrounds it until the crunch softens away; the maker calls this a barrier coat, and it sits between the piece and whatever you fold it into. It is why these are the honeycomb we list in our gelato range. They come in a 3kg box for production and a 500g tub when you want to try them first.

Is Honeycomb Vegan? 

Yes, our honeycomb is vegan. There is no honey in honeycomb and never has been: the word describes the bubbles, not the ingredients. These bites are sugar, glucose syrup, bicarbonate of soda, a trace of rice flour and a non-hydrogenated vegetable fat coating, with no dairy and no animal ingredients. 

How to Use Honeycomb Bites 

Fold them in rather than stir them in, and leave it as late as you can. In gelato and ice cream that means the last few turns of the churn or straight into the tub as you fill it; in a ganache, a caramel or a buttercream it means once everything has cooled to the point where it is thick rather than runny. They hold their shape well enough to sit proud on top of a cheesecake, a brownie or a traybake, and at this size they scatter over a tart or a sundae without needing to be cut. In a moulded bar or a bonbon, drop them into the shell before you cap it so the chocolate seals them in.

Troubleshooting

Store the box or tub closed, somewhere dry, out of direct sunlight and below 25°C, and do not decant them into anything that has just been washed. If a batch has been open in a humid kitchen for a while and the pieces have started to cling together, they will not come back, so work through opened stock rather than topping it up. Keep them out of anything hot as well: the coating is a fat, which is why the storage limit sits at 25°C.

Pairings and Ideas 

Honeycomb tastes phenomenal against dark chocolate, salted caramel, coffee, malt, banana, brown butter and burnt honey, and a pinch of sea salt keeps the sweetness in check. A few ideas to try:

• Honeycomb gelato, folded in as you fill the tub
• Salted caramel bars with bites set into the base
• Brownies with honeycomb pressed in after baking
• Bonbons with a honeycomb and praline centre
• Coffee and honeycomb sundaes, scattered to order
• Cheesecake with a honeycomb and malt crumb top
• Milk chocolate slabs studded with bites and sea salt