"14 Days of Angels Baking Valentine Memories!"
Chocolate and Toffee – what better way to treat someone special on Valentine’s Day? Or any Holiday? Or EVERY day?
For that someone special, there isn’t an easier recipe for a special homemade chocolate toffee treat for Valentine’s Day. Five ingredients make it even easier. Simmer the sugar, butter and syrup. Spread chopped nuts in the pan. (Of course, the nuts are optional.) Pour the cooked toffee over chocolate bars and cool. It can’t be any easier or faster than that! Make this for your special person and be a hero for the rest of the year. Okay, maybe not for the entire year, but at least you’ll be a hero until the toffee runs out.
My sister shared this recipe with me, but it was for a much larger batch, yielding about 4 times as much English Toffee. She was actually watching a quilting show on television when the Mother of the quilters came on the air and made the toffee live. She actually made 4x this recipe for a very large pan – YUM-YUM-YUM-YUM! You never know when you’re going to find a great recipe while watching quilters.
Serving size:
Recipe creates an 8”x8” pan for about 16 cracked up pieces of delicious chocolate coated toffee.
Prep your pan:
Line an 8”x8” cake pan with parchment paper.
Gather your toffee ingredients:
½ C Sugar
8 T Butter (one stick)
2 T Syrup, Karo Light
4 Hershey bars, regular sized
1 C Nuts, rough chopped, almonds, pecans, etc.
Set up your pan:
- Lay the parchment paper in the pan, covering the bottom and up the sides. (For a quick way to get the parchment paper to fit nicely, lay a piece under the pan, with enough overlapping to go up the sides. Trim out the four corners of parchment paper. Then place the paper in the pan – voila! It fits without scrunching up in the corners or needing two layers to fit both ways to go up the sides.)
- Chop the nuts and layer them in the pan on top of the parchment paper.
- Break the candy bars in half and lay all the pieces in the pan so they fit together without any spacing between them. You may need to break some chocolate pieces a little smaller. Set aside.
Bubble the toffee and cool:
- Combine the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan on the stove over medium heat.
- Stir constantly while it melts and combines, then simmers. I use a wooden spoon for stirring. Some rubber/plastic spatulas could melt in the hot toffee.
- Place a candy thermometer in the pan. If you don’t have a candy thermometer you can judge when it’s ready by the color – it should come to a nice caramel color.
- Let simmer and stir constantly until the temperature on the candy thermometer registers 290-300F degrees. It will also be a nice caramel color. Now it’s toffee! Don’t let it burn.
- Pour immediately over the candy bars in the pan. Quickly spread the hot toffee over all. I use a silicone spatula to spread the toffee. Hurry because it can harden fast.
- Cool the toffee and chocolate overnight or in the refrigerator. Don't be tempted to crack the toffee too soon or you could have a gooey mess on your hands. Patience.
- Break into chunks for eating or gift giving...after cooled.
Decorating and Color Variations:
- If your special someone is a super chocoholic, add a couple more chocolate bars on top of the hot toffee, and spread around.
- For a Valentine’s Day or other Holiday design on the top, lay red, pink and white candy melts on top of the hot toffee. Wait a minute and swirl the colors around with a knife to combine the colors. For Christmas, use red and green candy melts.
- Decorate the top of the top of the toffee with colorful M&Ms to fit the holiday or special occasion.
- Decorate the top of the hot toffee with mini candy bars favored by your special person.
- On top of the hot toffee, sprinkle cocoa nibs or chocolate covered coffee beans for coffee lovers.
- For a coffee flavor inside the toffee bars, sprinkle ground espresso on top of the chocolate bars before you spread the hot toffee on top.
- For a white chocolate swirl, add portions of chocolate and white chocolate bars on top of the hot toffee. Wait a minute and swirl the colors with a knife for a fun design.
Making this special English Toffee treat for someone special and “Bake your own Memories!”