Toffee=Squirrel Bait?

Toffee was Matt’s request for this week. It is a surprisingly super easy recipe, with surprisingly un-healthy ingredients…(it’s candy-deal with it!!). You’ve gotta stick around for the ending on this one, it’s pretty great…

Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Topped Toffee

(adapted from Bruce Weinstein’s Ultimate Candy Toffee Recipe)

1 ½ cups unsalted butter (3 sticks)

2 cups sugar

¼ cup water

3 Tbps corn syrup

2 cups total milk chocolate, white chocolate, & nuts for toppings

1, Butter or spray coat a 11x17in baking pan. Place on a cooling rack (my cooling rack was my grill, outside)

Paula Dean would be proud!

2. Melt the butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Don’t let the butter brown. Add the sugar, water, & corn syrup and stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil without stirring.

3. Continue to cook, without stirring, until the mixture reaches 300° F (hard crack).

4. Remove the pan from heat & immediately pour into prepared 11x17” pan. The syrup will spread by itself, don’t try to spread it further.

Mixture boiling...

5. Sprinkle 2 cups of milk chocolate and/or white chocolate chips on top and allow to melt for about a minute. With a pastry brush, spread the chocolate across the toffee. *Top with extra chips or nuts if desired (I used pecans)

6. Allow the candy to cool completely. Twist the pan like an ice cube tray to break loose the candy and break it into bite-sized irregular pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. Enjoy!

Almost done cooking!

So if you are from Vermillion, you know how the squirrel population is a little “dense” around town, especially on USD campus (squirrels on campus link).  I experienced this first-hand today….

After I spread the chips around...
I was too excited & forgot to
 take a picture before-hand-sorry!

Added white chips & nuts

Swirled around a bit

I set my chocolate/nut topped toffee outside to let it cool for about 10-15 minutes. I opened my obnoxiously squeaky screen door, only to hear a rustling of the un-raked leaves in our yard. There is a toffee thief in our midst!!  Instead of taking my precious candy inside like most others would do, I put it back outside and set up camp with my camera ready to find whoever left little claw marks in my toffee.

Chillin' outside

Little paws digging into my treat...

Did I catch him? You bet I did!!! On camera at least.

And no, I did not disperse the “clawed” candy to my friends. Matt did eat it though…if you see him foaming from the mouth, please let me know!

***So my pan got scorched in this recipe… lots of black on the bottom on the pan-yuck! I searched the internet for tips on cleaning the pan. I tried putting a dryer sheet in the pan with hot water for about 8 hours. -- I'll update tomorrow on how it worked!