Mince Pie Honeycomb Crunchies

Here's my first non-traditional bake for the season - combining two of my loves, mince pies and honeycomb crunchies :)
For the mincemeat, either buy a good quality jar or follow my simple recipe here.

Makes 16 bars/squares

Ingredients:

For the honeycomb:

2 tbsp golden syrup
75g caster or granulated sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the chocolate:

250g milk chocolate
100g dark chocolate
2 tbsp golden syrup
120g butter

For the pastry/shortbread:

60g plain flour
30g cornflour
60g butter
30g caster sugar

To finish:

150g good quality mincemeat
50g white chocolate

Method:

1. Make the pastry. Preheat the oven to 170c/160c fan/gas mark 4. Grease and line the base of a 20 x 20cm cake tin.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift in the plain and cornflour and bring the mixture together with your hands, until no more flour is visible. Shape into a ball - try not to overwork the pastry.

3. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

4. Roll out to about 1/2cm thickness and place in the cake tin - the shape doesn't matter as you will be breaking it into shards (to depict the deconstructed mince pie pastry).

The pastry before baking

5. Bake for 20 minutes until the sides are starting to go slightly golden. Take out of the oven and leave to cool fully on a wire rack.

The pastry after baking

6. Make the honeycomb. Grease and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Have a wire whisk and bicarbonate of soda close to you and a saucepan.

7. In this saucepan, heat the golden syrup and sugar together. Stir until the sugar has melted, then leave the mixture to boil (without stirring). Keep on a low-medium heat until the honeycomb mixture is becoming a deep caramel colour (about 5 minutes). Swirl the pan occasionally to prevent burnt spots from forming.

Stir whilst the sugar is melting (i.e no big lumps of sugar are visible)

Leave boiling...

Until this colour is reached

8. As soon as the deep caramel colour develops, take off the heat, add the bicarbonate of soda, and whisk. The mixture will bubble up a lot so be very careful! After around 4 whisks around the pan, pour onto the prepared baking tray.

9. Leave for 30 minutes to set.

10. Make the chocolate. In a saucepan melt the butter, golden syrup, and chocolates together. Once the mixture is smooth, take off the heat.

11. To assemble, line a sandwich box or 20x20cm cake tin with clingfilm. Break the pastry and honeycomb into shards. In a large bowl, combine the pastry and honeycomb shards and mincemeat.

12. Pour over 2/3 of the chocolate. Stir to fully combine all of the ingredients, then pour into the prepared tin. Top with the remaining third of chocolate.

13. Cover and refrigerate for around 1 hour until set. If you are in a hurry, freezing for 15 minutes will reach the same result.

14. Melt the white chocolate by placing squares in a bowl, and microwaving in 20 second bursts (at full speed). Once melted, pour into a piping bag. Pipe horizontal lines over the mixture, then use the back of a spoon to drag lines vertically though the white chocolate. This creates the feathering effect.

15. Refrigerate again for 10 minutes. Cut into bars/squares.