Thursday, March 30, 2006

Giselle's shower/English Toffee



My really good Baylor friend, Giselle, is due to have her baby any day now. A bunch of us threw her a shower back in February. A lovely time was had by all, and it's been requested that I share the recipe for the English Toffee I made. So here it is. (I give all credit to Amy S. and her mother-in-law, for both the yumminess of the recipe, and the extra inches on my waistline! Don't blame me if you get addicted.) I'm waiting anxiously for another excuse to make a batch...anyone wanna come over and help me eat it?

English Toffee

1 cup salted butter
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. water
1/2 cup chopped, toasted almonds
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1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped, toasted almonds

Combine butter, sugar and water in 2 qt. saucepan. (If using unsalted butter, add a few dashes of salt as well.) Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until candy thermometer reaches 300 F. Turn off heat, add 1/2 cup almonds, stir and pour immediately onto warm, buttered cookie sheet (jelly roll size works well). Spread thin. Sprinkle with chocolate chips, let stand for a minute until chips melt. Spread with spatula to cover toffee. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup almonds. Chill in refrigerator to set chocolate. Break into pieces.

Tip: It helps to have everything ready beforehand. Toast and chop almonds, heat your pan in the oven and butter it, have chips and almonds measured out. That way when the toffee part is ready, you can move fast in assembling it.

4 comments:

Kim C. said...

If you ever want to bring this to a church fellowship, let me know. I'll be happy to carry it from the car to the house for you.

(...toffee? what toffee? Did Stephanie bring toffee?)

Stephanie said...

Kim, I'll tell you what: if you keep the secret that I made it, I'll share it with you. They'll just wonder why the bushes are rustling and emiting crunching noises.

Chelsea said...

Can I bribe you into making English Toffee for stamp night one month? I could use a break from the dessert requirement!

If you want, you can borrow my toddler and preschooler activity books. I've used lots of ideas from those to keep the kids busy sometimes.

Once I wrote their names in dry erase marker on the kitchen tiles (one letter per tile), and they had to find each letter in order and clean it with a rag. It killed 20 minutes or so, and my floor got a spot clean.

Amy Soupiset said...

Stephanie, I am so glad that everyone likes the toffee so much. I have had that recipe for 13 years and have never made it until this year. I also had never tried it until about 6 months ago. I just thought I wouldn't like it. Boy was I wrong! Now I can't get enough, and I can't wait to make it for Christmas gifts next year.