toffee 4 of 4

Ok, so your stirring is getting difficult, almost impossible to stir it enough to keep the butter/fat into the mix.... This is good news your 15 minutes from being done. See how it's impossible now to keep it together....

At this point I'm stirring just short of making it fly out of the pan..... Just let me warn you how tragic 2 pounds of 300 Degree sugar and butter would be if it did come out of the pan, and landed on you or someone/something you care about.... These colors are not indicative of the color toffee should be at this point. if your toffee is this dark... you may be in trouble... if your done and it's this dark you may be ok.

Ok the Below color is representative of what it should look like. and notice it's getting smooth and the butter fat is coming back into it.

Ah Ha..... Sugar and butter are now one again...... This is Soft Crack!!!!!!!! this is not the proper color(damn camera)... Here is the next key... there is still a slight granular texture to the Toffee... and that goes away at hard crack.But you can use the water glass method...or... a thermometer... but realize sometimes the thermometer is measuring the butter fat and not the sugar....

What happens in the next 5 minutes is the difference between good toffee and Great Toffee... Ok here it is again (below) This is very close. at this point it's would be much easier to do in a stainless pan at lower heat because the state change isn't as fast. .... The Glass of water.... Ok at this point you start putting it into the little glass of water next to you.... When you taste it.... what should happen is that it should almost shatter in your teeth, throwing a beautiful powder around your mouth *Crunch* *Poof* It should not be chewy... But if that's what you get its still Yummy.... Also you must still rapidly stir... at this point the more you stir the less "Smokey" it will be.... Ok, one year I worked my ass off and my toffee was White as snow, no "smokiness" at all.... it was awfully... Toffee has to be a little brown. But it's like when you cook marshmallows by a camp fire... There is a light brown caramelized.. and then there is burned sugar that gives you heartburn.

So I don't have a picture of a final product in the pot, because the time to take a picture could mess it up.. So Seriously what is slightly granular above goes away(without burning.... If it starts to smoke. give up and throw it on the cookie sheet, better to have underdone toffee(soft crack, slightly chewie, than burned toffee.) don't waist $5 of chocolate and nuts on $5 of burned sugar... Know when to give up and toss it.... you may lose 5 but you won't lose 10.

Once the toffee is done quickly stir in a Teaspoon or 2 of Vanilla(Optional) Other options would be to add Almonds or the other nuts just as you pull it off the stove. if they are unroasted nuts you need to add them 5-10 minutes before this

then poor the mix onto the sheet.

ok throw the pan in the sink after your done poring and throw the nuts on it, then give it a few moments and start the chocolate... You want to put the chocolate on top at the point that it doesn't sink into it completely. your just trying to coat the outside with chocolate. Notice there is a towel under the cookie sheet... this shit is hot....

5-7k Calories of Toffee Joy

Alright get that pan clean as you let it cool Nonstick this takes 2 minutes, stainless steel. this could go for 30 minutes.When you scorch the stainless pan while stirring, don't grind at it with your spoon... try and keep the scorched toffee from building but don't grind at that stuff or it will ruin the whole batch.... From what I remember about stainless steel toffee making..... also you have to stir twice as hard with stainless. and twice as long... but to be honest I bet with stainless you burn 300-400 calories per batch. as opposed to maybe 200-300 with Teflon.

After the pan is clean, I take the pan of toffee out to the porch outside to cool off(away from animals).

in an hour or 2, bring it back in and break the toffee into small pieces.. make sure the whole pan is cool.

3 batches of toffee.

*Plonk*... This is where I'm a total snob.... The top one was 1 minute from being perfect. middle needed about 30 seconds more... but it's excellent. Bottom one was a bit overdone.

It took me till noon the next day to recover from the 600-800(probably 6-8 pieces) calories of pure toffee bliss I ate, just testing it out. I try and have food on hand like soup or something while I'm making it or I tend to eat tons of toffee, which if your going to kill yourself with food, is the way to do it. If your going to be Tubby, this is it. don't waist your time on shitty cardboard Burgers...