Conference turris::cooks

    -<Toffee Almond Crunch>- 
    _________________________________________________________
    Reminds you of candy - just like the name says
    
    BAKE: 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes MAKES: 13x9-inch pan
    _________________________________________________________
    
    1 cup butter or margarine, melted
    1 cup packed brown sugar
    1/2 teaspoon instant coffee
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    2 cups whole wheat (or Graham) flour
    1 cup (6oz) semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips
    1/4 cup sliced almonds          
    
    Combine first 5 ingredients; blend thoroughly. Spread in
    ungreased 13x9-inch pan.
    
    Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 to 25 minutes, or until 
    golden brown. Sprinkle immediately with the chips.
    Let stand 5 minutes; spread evenly. Sprinkle with 
    almonds; press lightly into chocolate with fork.
    When set, remove from pan; cut or break into pieces.

From Theodora Fitzgibbons' "A Taste of Scotland":

TABLET (OR TAIBLET)

A traditional Scots toffee which can be flavored according to taste 
with:  cinnamon, clove, ginger, lemon, orange, peppermint, vanilla
or nuts.  

1/2 lb. (1 cup) butter or margarine
1 pint (2 cups) water
4 lb. caster (extra fine) sugar
1 lb. tin sweetened condensed milk

Put the butter and water into a deep pan and melt on a low heat.  
When melted add the sugar and bring to a boil, stirring slowly 
all the time.  When boiling, add the condensed milk and simmer 
for 25 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking.  Take off the 
heat and add flavoring of your choice, then beat very well for 
5 minutes.  Pour into a greased pan and mark into squares with 
a knife, or into little bars about 5 in. long and 1 1/2 in. 
wide.  Wrap each bar in waxed paper when cold.  Makes 4 lbs. 
of toffee.  

    When it says "beat very well for 5 minutes", is this by hand
    or with a mixer?  Or does the recipe not specify?
    
    --Louise

    The recipe doesn't specify but when making candy I get the best
    results by beating by hand with a wooden spoon.

	I've made several batches of "Heath Bar like" toffee lately, and all 
	but the first has had something go wrong with it.  I was hoping I 
	could get some idea here about what's going wrong.  The directions for
	the toffee itself goes something like:

	1.25  C brown sugar
	2     T water
	 .5   C butter

	stirring constantly, bring to 285 degrees, using candy thermometer.  
	Take off heat and immediately add:
	
	 .25  t baking soda
	1     t vanilla

	Then you pour it out over some roasted almonds, etc.

	The first batch I made, I didn't realize how much the above mixture
	would expand, and cooked it quite slowly trying not to overflow the
	saucepan.  Eventually, I had to run and get a bigger pan.  I did get 
	the candy thermometer up to 285 degrees (I think this is the soft-crack
	stage, but I don't remember).  The candy came out GREAT! It was so
	delicious I ended up eating much more than I intended.  (By the way,
	I had doubled the recipe.)

	Since it was so easy to make, I decided to make a batch to bring to
	a friend.  I SORT-OF followed the above directions.  I doubled the
	recipe, but unfortunately forgot to double the water.  I heated it to
	285 degrees, but this time much quicker since I started out with
	the large pan.  When I poured it out, it ended up crystallizing. Yuck.

	I decided I'd give it another shot.  This time I carefully doubled
	ALL the ingredients, and brought it to 285.  It didn't crystallize,
	however it didn't totally harden either.  It was edible, but not as
	good as the first batch.

	So last night, I again set out to make a good batch of toffee.  Single
	recipe.  I heated a little more slowly than last time.  285.  Poured
	it out, and it STILL crystallized!!  I'm getting so frustrated!  Why
	did only my FIRST batch work?  Has anybody noticed something I might
	be doing wrong?  I'm really not much of a candy maker, so I'm not sure
	if you need to get the mixture to 285 and keep it there for a certain
	amount of time, or what.

	Any ideas??

	Sue

    A lot of candy thermometers tend to be less than accurate.  You might
    want to start by sticking your thermometer into a pot of water, bring
    it to a boil, and see how close to 212 F it's reading when the water
    boils.  (Our thermometer is *6* degrees off!)
    
    Once you know how accurate the thermometer is, use it to get to the 285
    degree ballpark.  But don't rely on it.  Instead, do a test for the
    soft crack behavior:
    
    	soft crack (270 to 290 degrees) - syrup dropped into ice water
    	separates into threads which are hard but not brittle.  (This
    	is used for butterscotch and taffy)
    
    Looking through the other phases, I noticed the hard ball description:
    
    	hard ball (250 to 266) - syrup dropped  into ice water may be
    	formed into a hard ball which holds its shape on removal but
    	is still plastic.  This is used for toffee, divinity, marshmallows,
     	and popcorn balls.
    
    Perhaps you should experiment by trying the hard ball stage instead?
    
    --Sharon
    

    re:.5: Assuming you live fairly close to sealevel, as I am sure some
    of our Colorado readers can point out.
    
    I don't know how much off, say, 1000' would put us.
    
    ed

    Do you stir the mixture?  This tends to cause crystalization. Generally
    when working with any kind of sugar syrup you should swirl the pan to
    keep washing down the sides.  Using a spoon or spatula sometimes causes
    problems.  Can't add much to the previous about temp, but I have found
    the same problem with my thermometers being 2 - 5 degrees off.
    One more idea, was your pan perfectly clean and dry before you started?
    A little grease or other substance can sometimes throw the texture off.
    Sarah
    

    I received some of the best homemade "Heath Bar" I have EVER tasted.  A
    friend made me some for Christmas using this recipe:
    
    			   TOFFEE CANDY (Heath Bar)
    
    	  1 Cup Pecans (chopped)
    	3/4 Cup Brown Sugar (packed)
    	1/2 Cup Butter or Margarine (Butter gives it the "real" taste)
    	1/2 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bits or Pieces
    
    (Note:  This is delicious.  If you intend to share it with anyone, 
    	    you should probably double the recipe.)  ;-) 
    
    Butter a 9x9x2 pan.  Spread chopped pecans in bottom of pan.
    
    Heat sugar and butter over medium heat stirring constantly.  When it
    starts boiling, cook for 7 minutes making sure heat doesn't go too high.  
    Immediately spread mixture over nuts.
    
    Sprinkle chocolate pieces over hot mixture and cover pan with cookie
    sheet to hold in the heat while the chocolate melts.  Spread chocolate 
    over mixture, chill thoroughly and break into pieces.
    
    Enjoy!
    
    Warm regards,
    Janet
    

�             <<< Note 1845.6 by NOVA::FISHER "Rdb/VMS Dinosaur" >>>
�                          -< that's for flatlanders. >-

Ed,

Thanks for remembering some of us "high-altituders" :)

Today's local paper (C.S. Gazette Telegraph) had a nice article on some of 
the high altitude considerations when cooking...

As I recall, boiling water at 5000' feet is something like 198�F

    
    I am looking for a recipe for English Toffee cookies. I think they
    may have toffee candy bars of some sort crushed up in them? I
    get these at Victory Markets in the bakery section and they are
    really good, but I would like to make them myself.
    
    Thanks!
    Robyn

    This sounds like Heath Bar cookies, made with those packaged Heath
    Bar chips... I've seen the chips a couple times but not recently...
    perhaps if you find a bag of the chips you'll find the recipe on
    it?
    
    --Louise

tres simple.  Tollhouse cookie recipe - without the chocolate chips - add
chopped toffe to your taste, roughly equivalent amounts are approx. 2 cups
chopped candy.  Hard candy works very well in this recipe.

This also works for other candybar flavored cookies - try adding chopped
snickers bars, for instance...yummy, messy, chewy and great fun for your
favorite snickers bar addict.

    I am still searching-
    The heath bar chips idea didn't work cause I can't find them and
    heath bar candy bars have chocolate in them, and there's not any
    chocolate in these cookies.
    
    If I find this recipe- i will let you know, or if anyone has any
    other ideas, I'd appreciate it.
    
    Thanks,
    Robyn

    Robyn,
    	  Here in VT, they have what you are looking for: they are called
    Butter Brickle chips & they are put out by the people who make HEATH
    bars(just like a HEATH bar only no chocolate coating!) I have had good 
    luck finding them at the GRAND UNION & MARTINS SHOP N SAVE stores. They 
    are located with all the other baking chips (chocolate chips, peanut 
    butter chips, etc...) & they have the recipe right on the bag for their 
    wonderful cookies! If you are unable to locate them in your area, let me 
    know & maybe we could work out shipping a "care package" to you.
    
    							Debb

    Maybe you could try making your own toffee from one of the recipes in
    Note 147.  Break the homemade toffee into small pieces, and add them to
    a batch of Toll House cookie dough that you've made without the
    chocolate chips.
    
    If you could find toffee candy without the chocolate coating, you could
    ues that, too.
    
    FWIW, Entemann's makes a great Toffee cookie *with* chocolate chips!

    I have found the heath bar brickle chips at Victory in
    the bakery section...they are there!
    
    good luck!
    
    

    Wow- thanks everyone for all your help!! I'm headed back to
    Victory tonight! :-)
    
    and my 8 year old son thanks you too! ;-)