Shibuya Honey Toast

Shibuya Honey Toast used to be the "in" dessert a few years back. I first tried it at After You Cafe in Bangkok in 2011, it was super popular then and I had to queue around 20 mins in order to get a seat in the cafe! The one I had was a simpler version with a thick slab of bread toasted till golden brown and topped with ice-cream, whipped cream and drizzled with honey.

There are even more elaborated ones where a whole square block of sandwich loaf is hollowed in the centre and the removed cube of bread cut into small cubes. Next the hollowed loaf and bread cubes are generously buttered and toasted till golden brown and crunchy. The bread cubes are added back to the hole along with some fruits. The toast is decorated with ice-cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, assorted fruits, nuts and finally a drizzle of honey.

I guess it's popular because the dessert looks virtually appealing with all the ingredients added, what youngsters call "IG-worthy" or "Instagrammable". LOL. Well, for me, it's a sugar & carbo-bomb but I do crave for it once in a while.

When Singapore Home Cooks and Huiji Honey once again approached me for a collaboration to create dishes using Huiji Honey, I immediately thought of Shibuya Honey Toast :)

I decided to make a "over-the-top" Shibuya Honey Toast, with honey introduced to various components of the toast. I have Honey Buttermilk Loaf Bread, Honey & Vanilla Bean Ice-cream, Honeycomb as well as Honey Dark Chocolate Sauce!!

Basically honey is the sweetener instead of sugar which I suppose is better since honey is more healthy and nutritious with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. And Huiji honey is made from pure natural raw honey with a light jasmine flower scent :)

Since it's school holidays, I created a "picnic-at-home" with the kiddo and we had great fun digging into the toast and making a whole mess using our fingers.

Actually making Shibuya Honey Toast is not difficult; essentially it's an assembling job, combining the various components together and can be as simple or as elaborate as you like it. Most of the ingredients can in fact be store-bought rather than homemade, but this time I chose to DIY the whole thing just for fun.

This is a simple 4-ingredient ice-cream without use of ice-cream machine (I don't have one at home as our household eats very little ice-cream). Hot honey is used to temper the raw egg yolks (hence the yolks are not fully cooked per se), so for those uncomfortable with it, please use pasteurized eggs.

Honey Vanilla Bean Ice-Cream

• 200g dairy whipping cream
• 2 egg yolks (pasteurized)
• 75g honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1. Add egg yolks into a mixing bowl, whisk the yolk on medium low speed for a minute.
2. Add honey into a sauce pot (preferably with spout), bring to boil.
3. Once the honey is boiled, pour the honey in a steady stream into the whisked yolks. Whisk till the mixture is creamy and pale, and cooled to room temperature, around 5 mins.
4. Add vanilla bean and mix well for a minute.
5. In another mixing bowl, whisk the whipping cream on high speed till stiff peak.
6. Fold the whipped cream into the yolk mixture until blended.
7. Pour the batter into a loaf pan. Cover with clingwrap.
8. Freeze overnight and ice-cream is ready.

The ice-cream turned out very nicely, not as creamy as those churned by ice-cream but good enough for me :) Love the subtle taste and aroma of honey which is accentuated by the addition of vanilla bean paste.

I love to munch on honeycomb! Use to eat a lot of Cadbury Crunchie which is chocolate coated honeycomb bar when I was a teenager :p

Making honeycomb at home is in fact very simple, but you do need a candy thermometer as the syrup needs to be heated to 150 degree celsius. Most recipes use very little honey in making the honeycomb, mostly sugar and golden syrup or light corn syrup. I decided to replace all the corn syrup with honey so that the taste of honey can be enhanced. Sugar is still an essential ingredient though I tried to reduce the amount.


Homemade Honeycomb

• 100g sugar
• 60g honey
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 30g water

1. Add sugar, honey and water into a sauce pot, do not stir the mixture, bring the mixture to boil till 150 degree celsius.
2. Upon reaching 150 degree celsius, remove from heat, add baking soda and stir quickly for10s.
3. Pour the mixture onto a tray lined with non-stick parchment/baking paper.
4. Let the honeycomb mixture cool down and harden for about 20-30 mins.
5. Cut or break the honeycomb into pieces. Store in airtight container.

After pouring the honeycomb mixture onto the lined tray, do not touch it just let it spread out by itself. I made the mistake of using a spatula to smoothen the mixture but it became messy and you can see some pockmarks created as a result.

The honeycomb hardens quite quickly in less than 30 mins, but they tend to turn soft and sticky if left exposed in room temperature due to our humid weather. So be sure to store them in airtight container.

Honey Dark Chocolate Sauce

• 50g dark chocolate
• 50g whipping cream
• 1 tbsp honey

1. Add whipping cream and honey into a heatproof container and set the container over boiling water.
2. Heat the mixture till honey is melted and cream is hot to touch.
3. Pour the mixture into the bowl of dark chocolate and stir to melt the chocolate.
4. Chocolate sauce is ready to be used.

Love the dark chocolate sauce with an undertone of honey, and the honeycomb tasted even better with the sauce! Couldn't stop munching already :p

And now for the main star, the honey buttermilk loaf bread! Have made this a few times in order to adjust the quantity of dough to the loaf tins I have. Really pleased with the results of the bread which is soft and fluffy, even till the next day or the day after. Try to finish up the loaf before third day because no preservatives added and the bread will turn moldy quickly. I always prefer making small loaves of bread so that they can be finished within two days.

Honey Buttermilk Bread


9"x9" loaf tin                       12"x12" loaf tin
1.5 tsp warm water                1 tbsp warm water
1/2 tsp instant dry yeast          1 tsp instant dry yeast
80g fresh milk                         160g fresh milk
1 tsp lemon juice                     2 tsp lemon juice
115g bread flour                     230g bread flour
10g cake flour                        10g cake flour
1/4 tsp salt                             1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda                1/4 tsp baking soda
20g honey                               40g honey
10g unsalted butter                  20g unsalted butter, room temperature


1. Mix warm water and yeast together, set aside for a few minutes till mixture is foamy.
2. Mix fresh milk and lemon juice together, set aside for a few minutes till mixture is cuddled (turns into buttermilk).
3. In a mixing bowl, add bread flour, cake flour, salt and baking soda and stir to mix well.
4. Add the yeast mixture, buttermilk mixture and honey. Knead the mixture using a dough hook on low speed till everything comes together. Turn to medium low speed (speed 4).
5. Once gluten is formed, add in butter and continue to knead until dough is smooth and elastic (window pane stage). It takes around 12-15 mins on speed 4 of KitchenAid.
6. Remove dough from bowl and round it. Grease the bowl and place the dough back. Cover with clingwrap and let the dough proof till double-size (takes around 45-60 mins).

7. Remove dough from mixing bowl, lightly knead to remove the air.

8. Use a rolling pin and roll the dough roughly into square shape.

9. Fold both sides of the dough into the centre.

10. Roll up the dough and pinch to seal the ends.

*weight of dough for 9" loaf tin is about 240g
*weight of dough for 12" loaf tin is about 480g

11. Place the dough into a well-greased (with butter) square loaf tin.
12. Cover the loaf tin and let the dough proof for second time, till about 80% height of tin (takes around 30-45 mins).
13. Preheat oven to 200 degree celsius.
14. Once ready, place the loaf tin into the preheated oven. Bake at 200 degree celsius for 30 mins.
15. Remove the loaf tin from the oven, and unmould the loaf from the tin immediately. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack completely.
 

Shibuya Honey Toast

• 2 square sandwich loaves
• 50g salted butter
• 1 tbsp honey
• Assorted fruits (I use banana, cherry, blueberry)
• Honey ice-cream
• Honeycomb
• Honey Dark Chocolate Sauce
• Honey

1. Slice off the top crust of the loaf.
2. Carve out a square in the middle of the sandwich loaf, leaving about 1cm around the edges including the bottom.
3. Insert blade near the bottom (likewise leaving 1cm allowance) of one side of the sandwich loaf.
4. Gently remove the the sandwich cube from the loaf.

5. Cut the sandwich cube into smaller cubes.

6. Melt 50g salted butter with 1 tbsp honey. Preheat oven at 180 degree celsius.

7. Place the bread cubes and loaf onto a baking tray.

8. Brush the small cubes of bread and the entire loaf (including the insides) with honey butter.

9. Bake the bread cubes and loaf at 180 degree celsius for 15 mins.

10. Remove from oven, let the bread cool completely before use.

11. Add a layer of bread cubes into the hollow loaf, add some sliced bananas and top with another layer of bread cubes.

12. Decorate the toast with honeycomb, honey vanilla ice-cream and fruits. Drizzle honey chocolate sauce and honey.

13. Enjoy!

So here we have it, my petite Shibuya Honey Toast.

And the regular size Shibuya Honey Toast!

I made two loaves of Shibuya Honey Toast this time, one regular and one petite so that both of us can have one each. But truth is we couldn't finish them as they are simply too much ingredients. Truly over-the-top :p

This can be a fun parent-and-child project at home, getting the kids to help out in decorating the toast and afterwards eating it together! Give it a try and I'm sure the kids will love it :)