Toffee is a delectable and delicate treat to make.
Toffee is a candy touted around the world by chocolatiers. It is deceptively simple in ingredients, consisting of butter, sugar and chocolate, but packs a giant punch in flavor and texture. Commercial candy factories have the toffee-making process down pat, but making it at home is a whole different prospect. What can home chefs do to ensure they are successful at creating delicious toffee? Add this to my Recipe Box.
Stirring
Most advice given in candy-making is to stir your ingredients slowly and thoroughly. If you stir too fast, you will force air bubbles into your toffee mix. This may be welcome for sponge toffee, but if you are making true English toffee, you do not want air bubbles to invade the mix. "Fine Cooking" also recommends adding ingredients slowly to your toffee mix.
Tools
Using sub-standard saucepans can lead to disaster in the candy-making process. Scorched pans that heat unevenly may ruin the toffee. Cracked or misshaped pans should not be used to make candy either. However, you don't need top-of-the-line sauce pans to ensure success. Use a heavy-bottomed pot that performs well and can react to changes in stove temperature quickly. Part of candy-making is measuring the temperature of the candy throughout the process to ensure it is melted, mixed and cooled at the correct time, and with the correct temperature throughout. Use a quality candy thermometer to monitor your progress.
Ingredients
In general, the higher the quality of the ingredients you use to make toffee, the better the outcome. Use pure, unsalted butter to prevent butter from separating during the cooking process. You can go one step further and buy butter made fresh from a local dairy, or organic butter made from non-bovine-hormone-injected cows. If your toffee recipe calls for granulated sugar, use granulated sugar and not a sugar substitute, as the consistency will not turn out the same with a sugar substitute.
Climate Control
You need to regulate the humidity in your kitchen if possible before making toffee. The Chocolate Candy Mall recommends avoiding candy-making on hot, humid days, as high humidity can adversely affect the outcome of your candy. If you cannot control the humidity in your kitchen, consider making it on a different day or moving your supplies to another kitchen to work in that has better humidity and temperature conditions.
Tags: your toffee, butter made, granulated sugar, humidity your, humidity your kitchen