Ma's Christmas Toffee

Every year our family has enjoyed Bret's mother's Ma's Christmas Toffee in the candy trays during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. 

Now, I've had a lot of toffee in my life, maybe too much, but this has to be the best I've ever had.  It's not the thin, Heath-bar type of hard toffee - this is about an inch thick and full of pecans with chocolate coating the top and bottom. 

Ma's Christmas Toffee isn't not rock hard, but it's not chewy either - it's hard to describe the wonderful texture of it.  Many have tried to duplicate it, but there's nothing like this recipe, and no one can quite make it as well as Ma can.

This is my second attempt at making toffee; the first being the saltine toffee previously posted in November.  That was successful and tastes great, but this is an altogether different type of toffee. 

You have to be patient and not deviate from the recipe, as it is spot on and produces great results. 

Many say you're not supposed to make candy on a humid or damp day, but Ma says she's never had any problem with humidity, even with her divinity.

The only problem I had with this recipe was that my chocolate kept falling off the bottom of the toffee and that was because I deviated from the recipe and added a handful more of chocolate chips to make a thicker layer of chocolate. 

More is better, right?  Not in this instance.  Stick to the amounts listed. 

Bret said it was really good (and it is..) but not quite the texture of his mother's. 

I never really expect to make Ma's Christmas Toffee as well as she does, but I can keep trying!  (And enjoy the results....)

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Ma's Christmas Toffee

Yield: 1 lbs.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Outstanding. Best toffee I've ever had!

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Ingredients

• 1 C butter
• 1 C granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon white corn syrup
• 3 tablespoon water
• 1 ½ C chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1, 6 oz pkg. semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Instructions

1. Butter a 9" square pan.
2. Melt the 1 cup of butter in a 2 quart saucepan. Stir sugar in gradually. Add syrup and water; cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally to 290 degrees on a candy thermometer or until a little mixture in cold water becomes very brittle. Add 1 Cup of nuts - cook 3 minutes more, stirring constantly. Pour into pan. 
3. When cooled completely, remove from pan. Melt half of chocolate chips over hot water and coat one side of toffee - sprinkle with half of remaining chopped nuts. Allow to set until chocolate is hardened.
4. Melt remaining chocolate chips and spread onto the other side of the toffee and sprinkle on remaining nuts. Cool completely until chocolate is hardened and then break or cut into bite-sized pieces.

Notes

Tips and Stuff :

Be patient when bringing the mixture up to 290 degrees on candy thermometer and make sure thermometer doesn't touch the bottom of the pan.

I used pecans, but walnuts would be wonderful on this - even chopped almonds would be great.

I buttered the 9" pan very, very well, but Ma said you could use aluminum foil and butter it to make lifting it out of the pan easier. I didn't have a bit of trouble popping it out of the pan, though.

I lightly patted the nuts into the chocolate so they'd stick better. Also, it takes awhile for the chocolate to harden, so I stuck it in the refrigerator to speed the process.

Don't be tempted to use more chocolate - I got it too thick on one side and the chocolate kept dropping off the toffee on that side.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 25 Serving Size: 1 piece
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 179Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 60mgCarbohydrates: 14gFiber: 1gSugar: 13gProtein: 1g