Hokey Pokey Ice Cream

Hokey Pokey ice cream is uniquely and unambiguously New Zealand — the name 'hokey pokey' for honeycomb toffee is used nowhere else in the world (in Britain it is 'cinder toffee', in the US 'sponge candy'). The ice cream — vanilla studded with broken hokey pokey pieces — was commercialized in NZ in the 1950s and is now the country's second-most-popular flavor (after vanilla). Every NZ dairy (corner shop) and supermarket sells it. The honeycomb itself is made by the dramatic reaction of baking soda with hot golden syrup, which foams into a golden, brittle honeycomb.

A scoop of pale vanilla ice cream with shards of golden, airy, crunchy honeycomb scattered through. The contrast is everything — the cold creamy ice cream, then the crunch of the toffee, which melts into caramel sweetness on the tongue. It is the taste of a New Zealand summer, eaten from a cone, walking on a beach.

The hokey pokey (honeycomb toffee) is the technical core: golden syrup and sugar are heated to 150°C, then baking soda is stirred in — the heat decomposes the bicarbonate, releasing CO2 that foams the toffee into a golden honeycomb. It sets hard, then is broken into chunks. The ice cream is a simple no-churn vanilla (cream + condensed milk), and the hokey pokey is folded in at the end (some pieces stay crunchy, some soften slightly). The reaction must be fast — once the baking soda goes in, the mixture foams instantly and must be poured immediately.