Dad’s Toffee

It’s not Christmas without Dad’s crunchy, nutty, adventurous toffee. It has a place of honor at every family holiday gathering, and all his neighbors and colleagues look forward to enjoying a plate of it each year. My earliest “cooking” memory is of pulling a chair up to the stove as a three or four-year-old and watching my dad stir his golden, bubbly brew, with a greased cookie sheet alongside and the air filled with nut dust. I could feel his excitement, and instinctively knew that magic was about to happen. It wasn’t alchemy, but that toffee was as good as gold from where I stood. My dad tends to play fast and loose with recipes and culinary rules, but his creative instincts always pay off with delicious dividends. He is always coming up with new toffee flavor themes, and it’s fun to play around with creating your own! One of my favorites is his “Yippee Hippee” – see the variations below for more on that and other tasty inspiration.

My parents are currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints in the Caribbean, so I’ll have to make an honorary batch of “Dad’s toffee” this year. The recipe below was written by him back in 2004 when I was 17 and was putting together a little cookbook of family recipes for a project. I love how his personality comes through in it, so I’m keeping it in his words, with just a few clarifications and added photos. Enjoy!

Brad’s Toffee

Basic Recipe (“Recipe of Ones”):

Put 1 Cup of Sugar, 1 Cup of Salted Butter (real cow grown works best), 1 Heaping Tablespoon of Water (Brinn’s note: “heaping” = 2-3 Tbsp), 1 Tablespoon of Corn Syrup in a heavy pan and cook on medium high heat stirring regularly but not too often (I usually melt the butter first in the pan). 

Take breaks from stirring often to chop the nuts (I don’t like to work too hard so I don’t chop them much and really the food processor does most of the work.), talk to people in the kitchen (I like to do this so I do this more than chopping), butter a cookie sheet (I don’t like to do this, but kids do for some reason), and clean an area to put the cookie sheet (I always forget about this one until the last second). 

As the mixture gets hotter and changes color you will want to begin to stir it more often so it does not burn; continue to stir until the mixture begins smoke – you will not confuse this with steam by the smell of something burning. (Brinn’s note: If using a candy thermometer, you’re looking for hard crack stage: around 300F.)

Turn off the heat and take the mixture off the heat. Add 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla and fold in 1 Cup of Nuts (I like pecans or almonds) – chopped or whole (whole pecans are marvelous). Immediately pour the mixture onto the cookie sheet. I like toffee thin, so I move the pan across the sheet as I pour. Let the mixture cool for a few minutes and then sprinkle 1 Cup of milk chocolate chips on the surface; if some accidentally fall in your mouth this is ok. When the chocolate chips change from their usual flat finish to a gloss finish you know they have melted; now spread the chocolate with a spatula covering all parts of the toffee.

In the food processor chop 1 Cup of Almonds until they resemble dust. Sprinkle the dust over chocolate surface and then shake the cookie sheet gently to encourage even dust distribution. Put the toffee in the freezer for 30 minutes to set the chocolate and then share the toffee with Brad and his family.

Variations on the theme:

Chocolate Lovers:

Use semi-sweet chocolate chips and stir 3 Tablespoons of Unsweetened Cocoa Powder in the nut dust before sprinkling it on the melted chocolate.

Baseball Park:

Use chopped peanuts and pretzels for nuts and top with the nut dust and crushed pretzels. I like the thicker pretzels and pour the toffee thicker.

Hawaiian Power:

Use Macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips with the nut dust. Also, you can add chopped, dried pineapple to the toffee with Macadamia nuts.

Yippee Hippee:

Add chunk chopped dried fruit like apricots and raisins with the nuts

Christmas White Mint:

Crunch candy canes into fine dust and sprinkle on melted white chocolate surface with the almond dust. You can also add some candy canes with the nuts into the toffee. Don’t forget to stir some into your hot chocolate while you wait for the toffee to cool.

Christmas Dark Mint:

Sprinkle ½ green mint chips and ½ semi-sweet chocolate chips on the toffee surface and then sprinkle with nut dust.

Better Peanut Brickle:

Add peanuts for nuts and use ½ peanut butter flavored chips and ½ milk chocolate chips, then sprinkle with chopped peanuts (don’t try to make peanut dust or you will end up with peanut butter).

Dare to dream – written by Brad Bullough, 2004 

Caramels Variation: For a next-level variation, try turning this recipe into caramels or caramel sauce! The toffee flavor in a chewy caramel form is out of this world!

• For caramels, add 1/3-1/2 cup cream with the vanilla (omit nuts at this stage) and whisk until smooth. Pour into a well buttered, greased parchment, and nut-lined (optional) 9×13″ pan and let cool completely before slicing. Once cooled, lift it out using the parchment overhang on the sides and slice with a buttered knife.

• For caramel sauce, add 1 cup of cream with the vanilla (omit nuts) and whisk until smooth. Transfer to a jar and serve warm, or refrigerate until needed.