Food Gifts

A Tasty Gift for Giving

It's that time of the month to start thinking about gift giving.  Since I knew that today I wanted a small gift to give a friend, I decided to make toffee.  Years ago, when my son was a cub scout, the pack put out a recipe book that contained this recipe.  It's great, it's easy and you don't need a candy thermometer, something I don't even know how to use.  You do need a bit of time to make it, since after assembly, the toffee needs to "dry" before you can break it up and package it, so, it is best to make it the night before you give it away, if you can keep yourself and snooping family members from eating all of it!!!

ENGLISH TOFFEE

1 bag of milk or dark chocolate chips (I prefer Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips)

2 sticks butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

About 2 cups chopped pecans (yes, they are expensive but other nuts won't do and THIS IS A GIFT)

Spray a 13 x 9 glass pan with Pam.  Chop the pecans,  

spread them on the bottom of the pan.

 

Cook the butter, sugar and vanilla over medium high heat, stirring constantly.  The mixture will go from a beige color and very bubbly and frothy

to a caramel color that is less frothy.  Take the mixture off the heat just when the butter starts to separate from the sugar.  Pour over the pecans.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the hot toffee.  Let them set for a few minutes to melt

then spread the chocolate with a knife (an off-set knife works well for this).

The chocolate will have a very shiny look to it.

When the chocolate is dry, it will have a dull color to it.

Break up the toffee in the pan with a knife into chunks. 

Place in festive packaging and watch the smiles as you give a homemade gift to friends!