Cooking For Engineers

[guest]

I've made toffee for 10 years now. Someteims it comes out well, sometimes not.

New problem for me t his time around: I make the toffee, in low humidity circumstances (I now check the weather report to see what my local humidity is), pull the pot off the stove when the thermometer says 300-310. I pour the toffee into buttered pan and hold my breath. More often than not this year, the edges will harden but the center is grainy and soft.

Any suggestions?

[Pennzer]

I make toffee a lot, and I'll just mention a few things I've learned over the years...
WATER CONTENT IS IMPORTANT
European butter has very low water content. If you use it, add water to your recipe. American butter can be up to 16% water, and you should not add water when using American. The texture of your candy will never be right if you have too much water. The butter will separate if you do not have enough water...i.e. with European.
DO NOT melt your butter first. Put sugar and butter in cold pot together and melt together slowly. If you melt butter first, you are cooking it and losing water. See the bubbles it makes when melting? That is water escaping. Stir butter/sugar while heating on low until all sugar is dissolved. Leave it alone until it comes to a simmer. Put a lid on the pot and continue to cook covered for 3 minutes. The steam formed will clear the sugar crystals off the sides of the pot. Remove lid and hang a thermometer on the side and stir occasionally. As it approaches target temp, stir more often to keep from burning.
TEMPERATURE IS VERY IMPORTANT
Test your thermometer. Place the thermometer in a small pan of water, deep enough for the bulb to be fully immersed but not touching the bottom. Make a note of the temp 3 minutes after the water comes to a boil. At sea level, your reading should be 212 degrees. Subtract your actual reading from 212 to get the amount of adjustment. I am at 2700' above sea level, and my reading is 207 at boiling, so my adjustment is minus 5 degrees. Toffee should be cooked to 300 at sea level, so my toffee should only be cooked to 295--300 minus my adjustment of 5 degrees.

[Pennzer]

....continued

I add 1/2 C very finely chopped toasted pecans (personal pref) to the syrup after it has reached temp and immediately remove and pour onto a Silpat mat (other surfaces work just fine) and spread as thinly as possible. If some of the oil seeps out, I blot it with a paper towel. I then immediately spread melted chocolate over it and then top with another 1/2 cup of finely chopped pecans and gently press into the chocolate with an offset spatula. I use Hershey bars melted in a double boiler so the choc is very thin. I move it to a cooler place (out of the kitchen) and let it set at room temp. I might put in fridge 20 min. or so if I'm in a hurry.

When choc has set, I break it into large pieces and then cut with a large chef's knife into smaller pieces. I'll have to try the rotary pizza cutter suggested in an earlier post--sounds like a great idea.

I use salted butter and do not add salt. I do not add water, vinegar, corn syrup, or baking soda. I use store brand butter and sugar.

I immediately put the cut candy pieces in Gladware-type plastic containers, put the lid on and put in the freezer until time to serve. It will keep a year or more--perfectly--in the freezer. NEVER store it in the fridge, and put unused portions back into the freezer. It can be eaten straight out of the freezer but its better to set it out a while before serving.

This is not a difficult candy. If you have suffered a failure, try again. I have actually made this candy without stirring at all from beginning to end. I put the sugar and butter on very low and stepped outside to do something, got carried away and forgot the candy. When I came back in, the syrup was just at temp and turned out perfect.

Toffee must be cooked all the way to temp. It will get quite dark when done--almost burned. That's what gives it the signature toffee taste, and that's what makes it brittle--cooking all the way to the hard crack stage. If your toffee is light colored and the texture is chewy or grainy, you have not cooked it enough. If you are serious about making this seriously great candy, invest in a really good thermometer. I have a Polder digital, but I made it many years using cheap grocery store thermometers. BUT I tested them each season.

I always double this recipe and have no problems. I use a stainless steel pot with tall straight sides. No need to have a particularly oversized pot. If you don't add water, you will not have the foamy boil at all.

I got my pot on Amazon. I'll try to find it and post a link. It cost ~$30. Gave one to each of my kids, too. They love to make candy. We make many batches in December and give as Christmas gifts. We make ahead and keep in freezer until ready to put into prettier containers. Needless to say, we make many people very happy.

G'luck. Don't give up.

[Canner]

I live in Ohio. I make toffee with 1 lb Amish Butter, 2 tbsp water and 1 cup Great Value Sugar; adding a tsp of vanilla once I remove the mixture from the heat. I've never had an issue with separation or granulation. I do not use a candy thermometer. I add all the ingredients(except vanilla) in a cold HEAVY sauce pan. I turn the burner on low to low medium until butter is melted. I gently stir the mix and turn up the heat to medium. I leave it alone until it begins to boil. At that point, I begin to gently stir until the sauce is a golden brown at which time I drop a tiny bit of the sauce with a teaspoon into a cup of very cold water. If it's up to temp, it will turn to a hard candy form immediately when dripped into the water. If it's still somewhat soft, I'll cook a little longer. I remove it from the heat and immediately add the vanilla. I gently stir the vanilla into the mixture. Then I add roasted almonds with brown sugar carmalized to the almonds to the mix. I poor onto parchment paper or foil in a cookie sheet. I immediately sprinkle the semi-sweet chocolate chips on the top and spread them with a soft spatula as the chips melt. I leave set in a cool area until set; about an hour at 69 degree room temp. I've also rushed the cooling process by placing it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Never had an issue with the toffee. It's a family favorite.

[Mary Conner]

Finally, a cooking website that approaches things logically, including relevan details and specific measurements! I am SO OVER half-page rhapsodies about what my family and friends will think of a recipe once I've prepared it and one-quarter page lists of instructions. IT WILL NEVER BE GOOD IF I CAN'T MAKE IT PROPERLY. Thank you, Cooking for Engineers, for making Christmas Toffee a possibility this year!

[wbm1112]

Grandma used to make what she called toffee, chocolate covered toffee that had a lighter/airy texture... It wasn't hard like toffee but almost like a "Solid Cream"...??? I believe she used Eagle Sweetened condensed? Grandma is gone and would like to make this but she took the recipe with her, any help is appreciated

Please send responses to bradmcgill@mchsi.com

Thanks again,
Brad

[Michael Chu]

[Rick the Kraut]

I have changed this recipe in 2 ways. I use 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, then add 3/4 cup pure cane sugar to the mix. I also add in the vanilla at the start in place of one of the teaspoons of water. Must be doing something right as I got two more orders today from the ladies at the bank. One said it is the best toffee she has ever eaten.

[Rick the Kraut]

I've made toffee for 10 years now. Someteims it comes out well, sometimes not.

New problem for me t his time around: I make the toffee, in low humidity circumstances (I now check the weather report to see what my local humidity is), pull the pot off the stove when the thermometer says 300-310. I pour the toffee into buttered pan and hold my breath. More often than not this year, the edges will harden but the center is grainy and soft.

Any suggestions?

Number one make sure you are using pure cane sugar. Sugar made with beets seems to have this problem. Next make sure your thermometer is correct by placing it in boiling water. It should read 212 degrees. I did this and my thermometer was off by ten degrees, I bought a new one that's right on the money. Another thing go buy some parchment paper and quit using the buttered pan method. No stick, quick easy clean up.

[monkeymaze]

I just use a jelly roll pan rubbed down in butter for my toffee. And the trick is to NOT stir it TOO much or TOO fast or it will separate. Just move a wooden spoon around the sides of your pan very slowly. Once you start to see the amber color bubbling up in the middle of your pan then start watching your thermometer. You don't want the heat too low or it is going to take forever, too high and it will scorch. My Stove goes from Lo to 9 then High, I keep my eye on 7. When my mixture gets to 300 degrees I turn off the eye leaving the pot on the eye I stir the toffee slowly until it reaches 305-308 then I pour it onto the pan.

[Yvie]

For the most part, toffee recipes are pretty much the same. I have been looking for a toffee recipe to add to my collection of foods that I shouldn't be eating ... =) I made this and it's still cooling. I tasted a piece of toffee that was on my spatula... DELICIOUS! It was so yummy! This recipe is definitely a keeper and these instructions and pictures really help!!! =)

[Guest]

This is wonderful! We love it, but it's better with brown sugar than white.

[radsman]

I have been making a similar recipie for years. When we lived near sea level.. no problem. When we moved to Salt Lake City (4000 ft.) I had my first two batches seperate. I made some adjustments with ingredients and temperature and never had the problem again. We recently moved to Monument, CO... around 7000 feet. I've tried to make it 3 times and it fails each time. I was getting a lot of 'crystalization' around the edges on the first two batches, so I bought a all-clad pot which heats beautifully and almost eliminated the crystalization. I babied this batch to make sure it wouldn't fail.. but to no avail!. Seperation @ 240 deg. I'm going to try again with some fresh sugar and corn syrup. Maybe I'll stop stirring as the temp gets up... Any suggestions???

[frankies coffee]

I'm going to try this resipe in the morning, may try using the espresso machine at coffee shop, think if will work quickly, will have to watch it not to make it foamy like a cappacino. But think I can do it in 1/3 the time and know I won't burn it. Going to be interesting, will try to let you know how it turns out.

[B-Town Girl]

Turned out great. here's what I did.

Followed the recipe except:
-I used brown sugar
-I added 2 tsp light Karo corn syrup.
-I added 2 more tsps of water early on in the cooking (total of 4) to smooth out and dissolve the sugar before bringing up the temp

Temp in my kitchen was around 70 and my humidity is relatively high- 88% reported on the weather here in Burlington, VT.

I used Domino light brown sugar and Cabot unsalted butter. I used a non stick TFal 4 qt saucepan without the lid.

I started out on a low temp (100 deg) for about 10 mins. Made sure the butter solids and fat didn't separate. Stirred a fair bit, but not what I'd call vigorously.

Raised the heat to low-med.

Once I saw that it was all smooth and couldn't taste any crystals when I tasted the spoon, I pretty much left it alone.

I raised it to medium heat and waited for the water to boil off. Brushed the side with a wet pastry brush.

Once the water boiled off and I noticed the temp start to rise again, I nudged the heat up just a bit more (6 out of 10 on my electric stove)

I had a nice bowl of cold water and ice cubes in it next to me to correlate with my candy thermometer. As it went through each stage, I took a bit and dripped it off the spoon into the ice water. (It was good to see how it progressed so when I want to make a softer candy, I'll know what it's supposed to look like) I took it off at hard crack - 300 deg.

I think the corn syrup and low initial temp helped. The careful rate of heat increase was important too. As was not fussing too much with it once it got past 260 deg.

It's cooling now and I'm going to break it up later once the chocolate sets more.

Cheers for the recipe and the comments.