Chocolate-covered Toffee

This recipe came together much easier than I thought it would. It's best if this is shared with a group of people rather than noshing on it yourself. It is a sugar, fat, and calorie-dense food item that I plated as one of the appetizers for this year's Stragglers Thanksgiving. The calorie penalty shouldn't be too bad split among 20+ guests. 

There are two stages to this. First, make the toffee. The second stage involves melting dark, semisweet or milk chocolate chips on the toffee while it is still hot. Better start with your chocolate chips at room temperature. 

Chocolate Covered Toffee

Ingredients

1 c unsalted butter, cut into chunks (melts faster)
1 c organic granulated sugar
1/4 c filtered water
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Butter a 13" x 9" glass baking dish and set aside. This is so that the toffee comes out smoothly.

2. In a heavy-bottomed pot, attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pot and bring the butter, sugar, water, and salt to a rolling boil. This should take just under 10 minutes to bring the mixture to a boil. Stir occasionally. When the thermometer reads 300 degrees F, remove it from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Total cooking time is roughly 18-20 minutes.

3. Pour the hot toffee into the prepared pan. Tilt the sides of the pan to evenly distribute the toffee. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top and let this sit for about 5 minutes so that the chips melt from the residual heat. Using an off-set spatula, spread the chocolate over the toffee.

When the toffee cools, it'll set. You can hasten its cooling but setting the entire pan in the fridge to cool. To remove, invert the pan onto a cutting board or parchment paper-lined cutting board. Use a sharp knife to cut into bite-sized pieces.

Candied Citrus Peels

It seems that all you really need is a dry summer day. Laying the sugared peels on a rack then waiting 24 hours for the peels to dry is nonsense. I was able to make a batch of lime peels and a batch of orange peels in the same day. And, a batch of candied lemon peels the next day. Probably could have made it all in the same day if I had more drying space.

In terms of quantities, the peels of six limes filled an 8 oz jar; one medium mandarin orange filled 1/4 of an 8 oz jar, and two large lemons filled 1/2 an 8 oz jar.

Use a sharp edged (not serrated) vegetable peeler to remove the peel from the fruit. Thinly slice the peel into strips. The less pith (white stuff) that is on the peel, the more translucent the peel will become when it is boiled in the sugar syrup.

I used one batch of sugar syrup for all these fruits. I still have 10 oz of sugar syrup leftover.

Sugar Syrup

2 c organic granulated sugar
1 c water

Combine water and sugar in a small pot and bring to a boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.

The Process

1. Peel the fruits and slice the peel into strips. Place the strips into a pot and fill with just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and let boil for 10 minutes. Drain the water.

2. Place the boiled peels into the sugar syrup. Bring to a boil. With a candy thermometer, maintain the heat until the thermometer reads 230 degrees F (syrup stage). The peels should begin to turn translucent. This is best observed with lemon and orange peels. You'll have to make a judgement call when doing lime peels. Boil at 230 degrees F for at least 5 minutes.

3. Remove peels from the syrup using a fork or chopsticks. Lay in a single layer onto a Silpat mat or drying rack. I prefer using a silicone mat for easier removal of the sugared peels. This is just so that the peels cool down a bit.

4. Once the peels have cooled. Fill a shallow bowl with 1/2 c granulated sugar. Transfer peels to the sugar and stir until the peels are coated. Set aside. Every few hours, stir the peels around the sugar. When the moisture has sufficiently evaporated from the sugar-coated peels, remove the peels to a separate container.

I use a canning jar with its inner lid removed and use a square of a paper towel as the temporary lid; using the sealing band to keep the paper towel in place. This way the peels can still dry out and the jar can sit on the counter without bugs getting in.

Macadamia Nut Brittle, batch #2

I made a second batch of nut brittle on the same day because I didn't think there was enough of the first to use as a garnish for 16 servings of apricot sorbet. This recipe ratio comes from Kendrick & Atkinson's Candymaking cookbook. It has a much richer toffee flavor since it has a lot more fat in it from the butter and a minimal amount of corn syrup.

Macadamia Nut Brittle, batch #2

The recipe is really to make something called Cashew Crunch, which I had assumed at the time was just another brittle. For general eating purposes, this recipe wins it for taste and texture.

Ingredients

1 c. unsalted butter
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1 c. organic granulated sugar
1 c. salted macadamia nuts
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a heavy 2-quart saucepan with a candy thermometer, melt butter and stir in sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil.

2. At 300 degrees F, add nuts and vanilla extract. Pour out onto a Silpat mat or buttered, rimmed baking tray. Spread thin into a single layer. Let cool to room temperature. Break into pieces and enjoy.

Macadamia Nut Brittle, batch #1

Made a nut brittle for the first time that actually turned out really well. This was the first of two batches. I figured that this might not be enough to garnish 16 servings of apricot sorbet so I made a second batch. This recipe uses an equal amount of sugar to corn syrup. It has more of a candied brittle consistency than a toffee brittle.

2014-05-03, Macadamia Nut Brittle #1

This recipe ratio came from Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, a cookbook about making ice cream. Because this batch was turning brown faster than I anticipated, due to a higher fat content of the nuts, I took it off the stove when the candy thermometer was at 280 degrees F. I am not sure what the baking soda does for brittle. I forgot to add it, even though it was already measured out and in my mise en place.

Ingredients

1/2 c. light corn syrup
1/2 c. organic granulated sugar
2 tbsp water
1 1/2 c. salted macadamia nuts
1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions

1. In a 2-quart pot with a candy thermometer attached, add corn syrup, sugar, and water together. Bring to a boil, then add the nuts. Cook until the candy thermometer is between 300 degrees F and 305 degrees F.

2. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. (I'm not sure what this does.)

3. Empty pot onto a Silpat mat or buttered, rimmed baking tray. Spread out the nuts into a single layer with a silicone spatula. As the brittle cools, it will harden.

4. Break into pieces and enjoy.

Ginger Sugar, Candied Ginger, and Ginger Syrup

At different stages of this recipe, you can make everything in the title of this post. I got the idea from reading Alton Brown's candied ginger recipe. Today was just a test batch, so I used a pretty small amount of fresh ginger. I don't have a digital food scale, so the amount of ginger used is just an approximation. You can save the peeled ginger skin to flavor broths and steam shellfish and/or seafood, like fish and crab.

Ingredients

1/4 pounds of fresh ginger, peeled
1/2 c. organic granulated sugar
1/2 c. filtered water

Directions

I recommend this order of operations because you can see how much water is really needed to make the syrup. Alton's method would have you use equal portions of ginger, water, and sugar. But I'm not comfortable with boiling such a small quantity of ginger for so long in so little water.

1. Slice the peeled ginger slightly larger than 1/8" and less than 1/4" thick. I found that 1/8" thick slices come out really small after the cooking process.

2. In a small pot, add ginger slices and sugar. Then add the water.

3. Bring to a boil and stir frequently. Let simmer for 20 minutes or until the water has nearly evaporated and the ginger is tender.

When the liquid has reduced by half, the ginger syrup is ready to be put into other sauces, on top of breads, or on ice cream.

4. Carefully remove the ginger to a drying rack that has been placed over a pie dish or parchment paper-lined baking tray. This will catch the residual ginger syrup which will eventually crystallize into sugar.

5. Let the ginger cool, then store in an airtight container for a couple weeks.

6. The scrape out the leftover syrup/sugar from the pot and let it dry on the same rack. As the water evaporates, what you'll have left is ginger-flavored sugar. This can be mixed in with more sugar, if you like. Store the ginger sugar in a separate airtight container. This, like vanilla sugar, keeps for quite a while in the pantry.