Toffee, the gateway to candy making

Despite getting my annual summer cold, I am continuing to make favorite dessert foods on the weekends.  The latest treat was toffee, an easy candy and a good introduction to candy making.

There are lots of recipes available on the net and in books.  I used Better than Anything Toffee from "Mom on Timeout" because it came up high on the list and I love pecans.  You can use any chopped nut instead of the pecans, or leave them out entirely. 

Ingredients:  1C chopped pecans, 1C unsalted butter, 1C sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1C chocolate chips.  The recipe calls for milk chocolate and I subbed dark. 

After prepping the 9 inch sq baking pan, put butter, salt and sugar in a large pan (she calls for 3qt but 2 would probably work).  This calls for patience as the toffee mixture has to heat to 290 F, aka hard ball if you want to use the water test instead of a candy thermometer.  And stir regularly to avoid scorching. 

Once the candy has turned brown and hit the required temp, add vanilla and pour it over the nuts in the pan.

Cool for 5 minutes to let it get solid, then put the chocolate chips on top and spread.  Then it goes in the fridge for 2 hours or more before getting cut/broken  into pieces and eaten.    Yummy stuff and next time, I'll use the candy molds I ordered so I can better control the portion size.