Cody's Almond Toffee

 

Cody's Almond Toffee

• 1 pound butter
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 cup chopped almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups toasted chopped almonds
• 1 pound shaved milk chocolate

Prepare a cookie sheet or marble slab by sprinkling with half of the toasted almonds, then half of the chocolate. Make the toffee by combining butter, sugar, corn syrup, water, almonds and salt in a large heavy saucepan. Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly. Wipe down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water. Cook to hard crack stage, about 290 degrees. Turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour hot toffee over the nuts and chocolate in the prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining chocolate on top; let it melt, then spread. Sprinkle with remaining toasted almonds. Let cool for several hours, then break into pieces.

Even with my tutors available, I was leery that this recipe would be successful, so decided to cut it in half. That actually worked quite well. In addition to using white sugar, corn syrup, and water (ingredients not in the recipe I tried earlier), I think the magic step was to brush down the sides of the pan with water. That was easy to do because we had a pot of boiling water out to test my candy thermometer (which, by the way, was way off!). I had heard of that technique earlier, but was concerned about adding water to the mixture. Cody assured me it would immediately evaporate, and it did. We used semi-sweet chocolate chips for the chocolate, and next time I think I might omit the chocolate on the bottom; it just melted right into the toffee. We also used chopped almonds (toast them previous to starting the toffee!), but I think I might prefer sliced almonds. I guess we'll just have to try this again!