Toffee

Hardware

• 2 qt. sauce pan
• 8" x 12" baking pan

Ingredients

3	oz		pecans
10	oz		milk chocolate
6	oz		salted butter
6	oz		sugar
1	Tblsp		water

Procedure

1. Grease an 8" x 12" pan with butter.
   
   
2. Chop the pecans into small chunks and spread in the pan.
   
   
3. If you’re using anything other than chocolate “morsels” (“chips”), reduce it to small pieces; you could even go so far as to shave the chocolate. What’s important is that it be in small enough pieces to melt easily and quickly.
   
   
4. In a heavy sauce pan, melt the butter, sugar, and water over a medium-to-high flame. Stir, and do not stop stirring! until the mixture turns medium-to-dark tan.
   
   
5. Pour the mixture over the nuts and spread evenly.
   
   
6. Sprinkle the chocolate bits over the mixture and spread.
   
   
7. Allow to set overnight in a cool place.
   
   
8. Remove from pan and break into bite-sized pieces.

Notes

Stir carefully! If it splashes on you, this stuff will give you a nasty burn. It's sort-of like roux that way, or like napalm, if you're so inclined.

Use butter! Margarine will not work, nor will mixtures. Also, unsalted butter (sometimes know as “sweet butter”) will not work; if you can't get salted butter, you can probably add a pinch of salt, but I don't know how much nor do I know for certain if it will work. Heck, I don't even understand why unsalted butter doesn't work – I just know it doesn't.

The original recipe called for Hershey candy bars but I find the brand doesn’t matter. You could use any sort of dark chocolate, semi-sweet or bittersweet, but I suggest you don't; milk chocolate really does taste best in this particular recipe.

Cooking the butter/sugar mixture is tricky: You have to be patient, and then work quickly. Also, there's no target temperature – you have to do it by color and consistency. Here are a few hints:

• Work over a fairly high flame; the mixture, once fully melted, should be bubbling steadily, but not so vigorously that it's splattering out of the pan.
  
  
• The desired color is that of wicker furniture; yes, the same stuff from which baskets are woven.
  
  
• The mixture will start out as liquid butter and “gloppy” sugar; it will then go to a thick roux; when it starts to move in the pan as a single blob, you're almost done. However, color is still the final yardstick (meterstick?) by which to measure.

If it doesn't seem to taste right, try another batch and cook longer or shorter.

Be patient with the chocolate: It will just sit there for what seems like a long time, then melt pretty much all at once. Wait for it to melt, then spread quickly.

Here are the ingredients by volume for those of you who refuse to weigh them.

Rating

Time: About 45 minutes.

Precision: 4.

Yield: about 4 cups

Source