Two years ago I did a Kitchy TV post of my aunt Tina and I making a batch of her delicious Holiday Toffee, and this year I decided to give her toffee a 30 Second Recipe update. Enjoy!
For me, this toffee is the epitome of the Christmas Season (we start badgering Tina to cook it the day after Thanksgiving), and something I look forward to nibbling on every year. Nothing is more depressing than reaching for my family's toffee tin and finding it empty, like a dead Christmas tree in the gutter. So please cook up this toffee until your kitchen is heavy with the scent of butter, sugar, and the holiday spirit.
Tina's English Toffee from Claire Thomas on Vimeo.
Ingredients:
1 pound unsalted butter (plus extra for greasing the pans)
2 cups white sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
2 cups dark chocolate, chopped
2 cups milk chocolate, chopped
2 cups finely chopped toasted almonds
Directions:
Melt the butter, sugar, water and salt over a low flame, stirring with a wooden spoon. When the mixture starts to boil, turn the heat up to medium. Meanwhile, grease two cooking pans with butter. After 15-20 minutes, the mixture has reached 305 F. Turn off the heat and add the vanilla, stirring to incorporate. Be careful not to burn yourself or the mixture, but if you do, and I have, run your hand under room temperature water (never cold or hot water) to subside the pain. Immediately take the hot toffee and pour into two greased cooking pans and smooth until evenly coated and about 1/8 or 1/4 inch thick. Put the pans into the fridge to let the toffee cool (this will take several hours, or leave the toffee in over night, uncovered).
Once the toffee has cooled, remove it from the refrigerator and carefully loosen the pieces (you can do this by hand or with a knife). If it cracks, it's not a big deal.
Melt the two types of chocolate over a double boiler, stirring to combine. Once the chocolate has melted, use a spatula to coat one side of the toffee, and then immediately sprinkle heavily with the chopped toasted almonds. This must be done immediately because the cold toffee can cause the chocolate to harden before the almonds can stick. Put the toffee back in the fridge to cool the chocolate. Once it has hardened (it takes about an hour), flip and coat the other side with the chocolate and almonds. You will probably have chocolate and almonds left over, which you can use for more toffee. Let the toffee cool in the fridge until hardened again. When it's ready, take the toffee out, and using your hands crack it into irregular pieces. Bag them or stick them in a tin for your own enjoyment.
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10 comments:
I made it for the 2nd year in a row for my coworkers and family snacks on Christmas. It's a huge hit!
Oh that's so nice to hear! I'm glad you guys like it.
I have been thinking about finding a toffee recipe and I am so glad I stumbled upon this one, it looks perfect. I can't wait to give it a try!
I'm new to cooking . . . it says use unsalted butter but all I have is Sweet Cream butter, but it doesn't say unsalted so I'm assuming it's salted? SO my question is, can I use this and just omit the salt out of the recipe?
Sweet cream butter should be unsalted read the ingredient label to be sure. If it contains salt omit it from the recipe. That's what I did and it worked perfectly.
Thanks Anonymous! Nicole, she's right, sweet cream butter typically means it's unsalted. Hope this helps!
Best toffee ever! So fun and easy to make.
I saw the recipe for English Toffee on TV, and made it for our book club get-together this week, It was a huge success! Then I gave some to the neighbors who told me the next morning that they had eaten it all within the hour of receiving it! Thanks for this super good recipe!
So delicious it makes getting yelled at by my dentist worth it. I also love the song you used for this video. Who is it by?
My mom used to make toffee similar to this but laid down pecan halves on the butter trays then poured the hot toffee into them & spread the chocolate on top. It was pretty much sublime, and the little crumbs & bit which were left after breaking it up were put in a jar in the freezer to use as topping sprinkled over ice cream. Thanks for a wonderful trip on memory lane.
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