Homemade English Toffee a Christmas Tradition

Toasted almonds in a buttery sweet, melt in your mouth toffee, slathered in luscious chocolate with more toasted almond bits. Heavenly treats your family will love. My mother started making toffee when I was 13, and it became a tradition. I started the same tradition when I was raising my own children, so they would have a bit of the grandmother they never knew. Here's our version, easy and delicious. No water, no corn syrup, I like this recipe the best as it is.

English Toffee

1 cup real butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup toasted almond slivers
1/2 cup each semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips

In a heavy duty pot, melt butter and add sugar. Over medium heat, or a little lower depending on your stove, continue to cook, stirring constantly with a back and forth motion over all the pan bottom to keep from scorching. Using a candy thermometer bring toffee to 290 degrees. Before you get to that temperature you might find there is a separation stage, where it looks as if there's a layer of oil that separated from the carmelized sugar. Keep stirring and it will go back in to the toffee mixture. Do not pour it off, you will ruin your toffee.  ( I test by dropping a drizzle into a cup of cold water and tasting it. You want a smooth texture, not grainy. I have learned to eyeball this over the years as there's a point where you get just past the grainy texture, but before it gets too brown. You want a nice golden brown. )  Add nuts, stir in and pour onto cookie sheet. This will make the pan very hot so you want to put the cookie sheet on a cooling rack. You do not need to butter the sheet as some recipes suggest, as it makes the toffee too greasy. After about 5 minutes, sprinkle the chocolate chips on the hot toffee. Let it sit for a few minutes and then using a spatula spread the melted chocolate over the toffee. You can sprinkle it with more toasted almond bits if you like, we do. :-) If you have any questions drop me an email. I hope you get a chance to try this!

Gingerbread House 2011

 It's been sooooo long since I created a gingerbread house, something I love to do if given an opportunity. A local business is offering a $500 dollar 1st prize so that was incentive enough to try my hand at creating one again. It will be an interesting process and project as my FIL is at home from the hospital after a second bout of pneumonia. Although hospice is tending to his needs as far as prepping for the day or getting him ready for bed, I'm the primary caretaker now. He's so sweet, and so appreciative of all that's done for him that he makes it easy to care for him.

While he naps, I will try adding a bit here and there to my little house, in hopes of having it done by Saturday night. Things look a bit rough so far, but as with all creations, you start out with a rough up and then add detail until you have a finished product, with all flaws or oops! parts fixed or covered up. Lucky for me that frosting is a magic eraser or the perfect cover up, as this has been a challenge so far, working in a tiny kitchen without all my tools of the trade at hand. Wish me luck, this will be fun, but we shall see if it gets done. :-)

Sabbath Sharing

As I finished wiping off the remnants of a failed attempt at Honey taffy I pondered on the events of the week. Friday it seemed that no matter what I did, with the exception of laundry, failed. The taffy wouldn't get stiff, the pinto bean fudge turned to a tasty but gooey vat of chocolate, and the white fudge, both batches, turned to sugary masses of not so usable candy. I did manage to get the peanut butter candy to stiffen up, as a matter of fact it was so stiff after sitting in the fridge I had to wait for hours before I could even attempt to pull it out and use it.
So why such a frustrating day? Perhaps it had to do with several things. One, I had a deadline. Murphy's Law states that if you wait til the last minute so to speak, you will have failure. Two, I was trying recipes I'd never used before. Three, I wasn't feeling well. Four, sometimes life is like that. Luckily, through inspiration I was able to salvage the pinto bean fudge, which became part of brownies both inside and as frosting. People loved it! The peanut butter candy I was going to make Reeses peanut butter cups out of, and after dipping a few balls and putting them in the pretty foil cups and realizing that it would take fooooorrreeeeevvvver! to do that, I had the idea come to me that I should take the rest of the candy, shape the rolled out mass into a flat rectangle and spread the melted chocolate over it. Then I could just cut it into squares when cooled. It worked! Funny thing, it was the most popular treat at our Super Service Saturday yesterday. All this was supposed to be for a tasters table showing all the good treats you could create from food storage items. Well I have a mission now, to find that best pinto bean fudge recipe, one that will work. And to get someone to show me how to make taffy. I know someone who knows how but she lives hundreds of miles away.
Speaking of service, here's a story that I found heart warming

http://mormonchurch.org/124/lds-church-helps-dikembe-mutombos-hospital

Here's the recipe I had success with that can be made using all food storage items. Yes, it's okay to have chocolate chips in your food storage....:-)

Peanut Butter Candy

2 c. peanut butter
2 c. honey
2 c. powdered milk

1 c. chocolate chips

In a heavy duty pot warm up honey and peanut butter. Do not bring to a boil. You are just warming it. Add powdered milk slowly, stirring to mix well. On a clean surface, knead candy until smooth. Lightly dust a sheet of tinfoil with powdered sugar and roll out candy to about 1/2 inch thick. Shape into a large rectangle. Melt your chocolate chips over a warm pot of water in a double boiler. I don't use the microwave as I have a lousy one, but if you know how to do this in the microwave, go for it. Spread your chocolate over the peanut butter candy and when the chocolate is set, cut into squares.