Tempered dark chocolate with chocolate-dipped honeycomb candy

Fill the melting bowl to the brim with chocolate; a large quantity makes the temperature easier to control.

Set the bowl over a large pot of barely simmering water on a low flame and stir constantly until the chocolate reaches 131 to 136F.

Take off the heat at about 134F and add the finely chopped seed chocolate.

Stir, scraping the bottom and constantly scraping down the sides, until the chocolate cools to 83F; do not stop short.

Return the bowl to the double boiler to bring it to its working temperature of 88F.

Test the temper by dipping strawberries.

For the honeycomb, combine the sugar, corn syrup and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

Stir gently with a fork to break up lumps of sugar, then cover a few minutes to steam crystals off the sides.

Simmer until the sugar dissolves, then cook to amber, stirring gently with a tiny whisk where it colors unevenly.

Turn off the heat, dump in the baking soda all at once, whisk thoroughly but for no more than 30 seconds, and pour out in one clean motion without agitating.

Walk away; if it overcooks, make it again.

Cool the honeycomb completely, cut it into candy-sized pieces with a serrated knife, dip in the tempered chocolate, set on a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with flaky salt.

variation: coat a balloon in two layers of tempered chocolate, pop and remove it, pipe and attach features using chocolate as glue, chill with canned air held upside down, and fill with the honeycomb.