Buttercrunch Toffee


buttercrunch 180 jpeg gf.jpgEveryone I know is currently on The Dukan Diet   As part of my plan to sabbotage this love affair with Pierre Dukan,  I made a batch of buttercrunch toffee, placed it in a nice box and took it  to a ladies lunch yesterday to test their will power. They all crumbled.  Even the ones I had down as Dukan Diet  die hards.  The box and the contents were demolished within minutes and every last little crispy fragment was scooped out. Lesson learned, the nice box was totally redundant.  Just a paper bag would have done the trick.  Anyway, diet or not, I urge you to make this little gem.  Your waistline may not thank you but it is a very good way to cheer yourself up when the weather is lousy and lousy it is my friends. For a summer that has drought written all over it, you could have fooled me.  It's pouring here. A piece or two or three of toffee, a cup of coffee, hey, who cares what the weather is like. The recipe comes from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz with a few minor adaptations made by yours truly. 

Yield

Never enough

Preparation time

10 minutes, plus 15 minutes to chill

Ingredients

1 tbs water
60g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
2 tbs light brown sugar
1/8 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100g toasted whole almonds, roughly chopped- optional
80g plain chocolate chips

Directions

Lightly grease a baking tray with sunflower oil or line with a non-stick liner.  Toast the almonds in the oven for 8- 10 minutes until fragrant and allow to cool before oarsely chopping.  Set them aside. 

Have the bicarbonate of soda and vanilla extract measured out separately and ready to go.

Place the water, butter, caster sugar and brown sugar in a small saucepan.  Bring the mixture slowly to the boil over a medium heat, swirling the pan very gently to ensure all the sugar dissolves before it starts to boil.  Place a candy thermometer in the saucepan and boil the mixture until it reaches 300 F (150 C) which is known as hard crack.  As soon as it reaches the correct temperature take the pan off the heat and add the bicarbonate and the vanilla extract.  Mix to combine and then pour the hot mixture onto the prepared tray. Leave to set for a few minutes and then sprinkle the chocolate chips on top.  Leave them to melt for a few minutes and then using a spatula or a palette knife spread the chocolate out over the toffee in an even layer.  Add the chopped nuts if you are using them and then allow the toffee to cool for about 15 minutes.  You can place it in the fridge to speed up the process a bit or leave it somewhere cool. Once set you can break the toffee into chunks and serve.

Notes