Hokey Pokey

Break open an amber chunk, and holes large and small appear between thin walls of sugar. New Zealand’s hokey pokey is made by boiling sugar and golden syrup, then adding baking soda at the end so the mixture puffs up all at once. Because its cross-section looks like a honeycomb, it is also called honeycomb toffee. Pieces of this sweet are also mixed into vanilla ice cream. Further back in the name’s history, however, the words referred to ice cream sold on the street and to the people who sold it.

Cross-section of aerated candy, also called cinder toffee. Location unknown, 2009, Londonsista (photo source / public domain)

Adding baking soda to hot sugar syrup to create bubbles

Sugar and golden syrup are warmed gently and stirred until dissolved, then brought to the boil. The mixture starts not as a flour dough or an egg foam, but as a thick sugar syrup. Boiling reduces its water content until it will harden once cooled. If it is not boiled long enough, it is slow to set; if it is overheated, the burnt flavour becomes strong.

The pan is taken off the heat and baking soda is stirred in quickly. In the hot syrup, the sodium hydrogen carbonate produces carbon dioxide, and the mixture foams up all at once. Because the reduced syrup is very viscous, it holds the bubbles, but if stirring continues, the bubbles escape or collapse. The mixture is poured straight into a tin and left to cool without being moved. As the sugar sets, the bubbles are trapped inside thin walls. Some sweets rise slowly in an oven, but hokey pokey puffs up in the pan in a short time. The state of the syrup, the moment the baking soda goes in, and how quickly the mixture is poured and set determine the holes and texture that these three ingredients produce.

The cooled block is broken into irregular pieces rather than cut neatly. Even large-looking pieces bite easily at first, because the thin walls between the holes shatter into fine bits of candy. A coating of melted chocolate adds a contrast between the smooth outer layer and the candy full of holes inside.

An 1896 patent application and a 1929 recipe for home cooks

In the 1890s, a sweet sold in chunks under the name hokey pokey was available in New Zealand. According to historical material from an industry association, William Hatton filed a patent application on March 14, 1896, for a method of making a sweet with sugar, glucose, water and baking soda.

In 1929, a column in the Otago Witness printed a method for making this sweet in response to a reader’s request. Sugar and syrup are brought to the boil, baking soda is stirred in, and the mixture is poured into a greased tin. The column also advises using a large pan because the foam rises a great deal. A method related to today’s three-ingredient candy was recorded as part of an exchange of household tips.

A chocolate-coated Crunchie bar. Location unknown, 2007, Adambro (photo source / CC BY 3.0)

The candy that became pieces in ice cream

Te Ara, the encyclopedia of New Zealand, describes the ice cream with the same name as vanilla with pieces of honeycomb toffee added. Brown pieces are scattered through the cold, white vanilla ice cream and add a crunchy texture. Accounts differ on who first made it.

The industry association gives weight to the memories of Brian Simon. He says that in 1953, at the Newjoy company in Dunedin, he put broken pieces of Crunchie bars into vanilla ice cream. In this account, no special candy pieces were made for the ice cream at first. Instead, broken chocolate-coated honeycomb toffee was used. Other claims say it began with Meadow Gold in the 1940s or with Tip Top during the war. The association doubts the first claim because of when that company was founded, and it also doubts the second because sugar was rationed during the war. Another story says Peter Pan made it in the mid-1950s. Who made it first remains unclear.

An example of honeycomb ice cream served with toffee sauce. Location unknown, 2011, Ben Sutherland (photo source / CC BY 2.0)

Some products use a chocolate ice cream base instead. Eiger, a Japanese importer, sells the New Zealand–made “Emerald Chocolate Hokey Pokey,” which mixes caramel pieces made from sugar, butter and other ingredients into ice cream flavoured with cocoa. Products with the same name are made with either a white vanilla base or a chocolate-flavoured base.

The biscuit with the same name is made with flour and butter

Hokey pokey biscuits do not always contain crushed candy in the dough. In Chelsea’s recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method), butter, sugar, golden syrup and milk are warmed and cooled slightly before flour and baking soda are added. The dough is rolled into balls, pressed with a fork and baked in the oven. The syrup and baking soda are the same, but they behave differently in a dough of flour and fat than in candy that is poured from a pan and broken.

Two theories on the origin of the ice cream sellers’ name

In Britain and the United States from the 19th to the early 20th century, the word also named cheap street ice cream and the people who sold it. Sellers cut ice cream from a block and wrapped it in paper, or had customers hand back the small dish after eating. A history of New Zealand’s ice cream industry mentions a possible link to the Italian cry Gelati, ecco un poco!, meaning “Here is a little ice cream!”

The etymologist Michael Quinion suggests a different origin. He explains that hokey-pokey was used in English in 1847 to mean “deception, trickery,” and that this use is related to the magician’s phrase hocus-pocus. One theory holds that this word was applied to cheap ice cream; another holds that it comes from the Italian cry. It is also unclear how the name came to be used for an aerated candy in New Zealand. Street ice cream, bubbly candy and ice cream with candy pieces share the same name, but each has its own history, both of the word and of how it is made.

Glossary