How To Make Great Candy
Though the ingredients are few and the directions are easy to follow for these candy recipes, it always helps to see a professional at work in the kitchen. Satisfy your sweet tooth with this private cooking class from professional caterer/cake decorator Sharon Salomon.
English Toffee
English toffee is a delicious treat to have about the house or to give away as a gift – and it costs only a few dollars to make. This is one candy recipe that requires careful attention, so make the toffee at a time when you will not be interrupted. You will only need about 30 minutes to whip up a batch, but you need to be able to concentrate during that period.
Sprinkle nuts, chocolate on pan.
You’ll begin by preparing the pan. Chop up 2 cups of almonds, either by hand or in a food processor (which is much easier). Spread half of the almonds onto a 10” x 15” cookie sheet, and set the rest aside. Next, grate or chop an 8-ounce Hershey chocolate bar until it is nice and fine. You can increase this amount if you like your toffee to be real chocolaty. Spread half of the ground chocolate over the nuts on the pan, and again set the remainder aside. This mixture will provide the base layer for your candy.
Next, in a 3- to 4-quart, heavy-duty pan, melt 1 pound (four sticks) of butter using medium heat. Do not make English toffee using margarine; it is not the same product at all. If you chop the butter sticks into cubes, this process will take less time. Once the butter is melted, add 2 cups of sugar. Stir until dissolved; then add ¼ cup of water.
You will need a candy thermometer.
In a few minutes when the mixture starts changing color, you will want to add your candy thermometer. Be sure your thermometer is accurate ahead of time. A true thermometer will read 212° when water reaches its boiling point. Ideally, your English toffee will be ready when it reaches 300°.
You must keep stirring the candy constantly – that is why you need to find a time to make the toffee when no one will bother you. This part of the process will take about 15 minutes. At this stage, the mixture will be a yellow color. A few minutes later, the liquid will still be yellow but the consistency will be significantly thicker. A few more minutes and the mixture will start to turn brown. Keep stirring to make sure your toffee doesn’t scorch.
Sometimes the candy is ready before the thermometer reads 300°. Regardless of the temperature, when your toffee begins to smoke and the bottom begins to scorch, it is ready. If you drop a little bit of the toffee in a glass of cold water and the toffee cracks, that’s another way to tell if it’s done, but you probably won’t have time to perform this test when you’re in the middle of making candy.
Remove the candy thermometer. Using hot pads and extreme caution, pour the hot liquid over the almonds and chocolate on the cookie sheet. Don’t scrape the bottom of the pan. (You don’t want to get that burned flavor through the whole batch.) But you can use a spatula to scrape the sides.
Add the rest of the chocolate to the top of the toffee and let it sit a few minutes. Once the candy has cooled and hardened a bit, you will spread the chocolate using the flat side of a knife. Next, add the remainder of the crushed almonds. Use the back of a metal spatula to press the almonds into the toffee.
In a few hours, the candy will be cooled and ready to cut. Take a knife and, using caution, stab at the toffee to break it up into small pieces. This technique will leave little dents on your cookie sheet, so use a pan that you don’t mind marking up. Remove the candy and serve or store in a plastic container. It will last for several weeks.
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