I don't know how to tell you this but SOMEONE has been holding out on us! Well maybe not you but they definitely have been holding out on me! I was always under the impression that making toffee was difficult and involved and expensive, and many other factors were involved that kept me from ever trying to make it. My little experiment with Salted Caramel Squares did nothing to ease these fears.
However, I was looking over The Pioneer Woman's blog the other week and there was this gorgeous toffee (not well represented by my sad little picture taken at 11pm when I was completely exhausted and was just happy to be on my way to bed). I decided I would have to make the toffee, it was lovely, it was calling to me. I printed the recipe and the only thing I really did was scan the list to see if I had everything I needed... yuppers... we're good. Then after I finished my final on Saturday I pulled the recipe out and noticed.... WAIT A MINUTE.... this is simple.
However the fear from the Salted Caramel Square masacre of 2010 still haunts me a little so I eyed my candy thermometer and quietly and calmly threatened it's aluminum life should it let me down again. Turns out you can threaten inanimate objects into doing your bidding. It must have been the fault of the demon oven of days past.... not to be confused with the current demon oven, maybe that should be a lesson to the new demon oven... look what happens when you don't get in line... you are secretly removed from the kitchen in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again.
Here are the basic steps.... add ingredients. Boil ingredients (I have no picture here because I was afraid to leave the pot less we repeat the nightmare that shall not be named further) until they hit 298 on the candy thermometer. Spread resulting toffee thinly (however I had one thin batch and one thick batch because it makes quite a lot in my opinion and I prefer the thicker batch.
Let those little babies cool.
Prepare your toppings. I used sprinkle ball thingies for a little flash of color and toasted pecans on the other batch. I don't like to make only one batch of things that contain nuts in case someone can't eat them.
Melt your chocolate. Let cool briefly so as to not crack the toffee. Pour half over each batch of toffee. Using a flexi-spatula thing spread chocolate over the toffee and add toppings as thick or thin as you would like.
Let cool... this part took awhile. Probably not a problem if you're making them during the day but I made them late and was hoping to have them wrapped as part of a Christmas gift for Monkey's teachers. I ended up sticking them in the fridge.
Let cool completely. Carefully flip and repeat with second half of chocolate and toppings. Break into pieces. I attempted to break them into standardized pieces so I could make a nice little presenation for the teachers but the pieces that are left for us are a mess.... who cares really? You know other than me and my OCD?
For the recipe, details, and better photos check out Pioneer woman's site here.
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