Today is National Bundt Day so I want to start by wishing everyone a Happy Bundt Day 🙂 If I didn’t already have two baking group posts scheduled for today (MSC post here) I would gladly have participated. If you need a Bundt fix, head over to Mary’s site – The Food Librarian – to see the 30 (yes, 30!) Bundts she’s posted over the past month!
Today is also Sunday, which means Sweet Melissa Sundays! This week’s recipe was selected by Kaitlin of Kait’s Plate: butter toffee crunch. I’m not much of a candy maker to be honest. As I was telling a few friends on Twitter earlier today, I am more than happy to buy my candy at the store and stick to making cakes and cookies at home. Also, neither Shane nor I are toffee fans. Still, I wanted to give the recipe a shot and as luck would have it, Shane has a friend in town who said he’d be more than happy to try some of the toffee!
I’m not quite sure what to say about the process of making this recipe. For me, it ended up being really (surprisingly) easy. However, I know several of my SMS friends struggled and were disappointed in their results. I think the keys to my success were a reliable candy thermometer and a heavy-bottomed saucepan. I’ve tried candy making in the past with a less reliable thermometer and one of our cheap pans and things didn’t go well. You also have to work quickly once the toffee comes up to temperature to get your vanilla and baking soda in and the candy spread. I quartered the recipe and used my Silpat on a rimmed baking sheet as the base for my candy.
Like I said, I don’t like toffee but I did sample a small corner of the candy and actually thought it had good flavor. Shane’s friend, Alex, humored me and ate some of the toffee I pushed on him when he and Shane got home from the movies a few minutes ago. I can report he gave it a thumbs-up! He liked the way the slight bitterness from the semi-sweet chocolate balanced the sweetness of the toffee layer.
Thanks to Kaitlin for a great pick this week! I think I’ll be making some this holiday season for friends and family. You can find the recipe on her site or in the book. Stop by the SMS site to see all of the toffee that was made this week.
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
LOVE toffee and Toffee Candy. Looks like fun to make. And it looks perfect. Chocolate and pecans and toffee. PERFECT!!!!!!!
Your toffee came out looking wonderful. Im glad your friend liked it too! Mine is more like toffee caramels, but I did put it in the freezer and now it has a crunch to it
Happy National Bundt cake day to you too!
That looks like perfect toffee to me…I can see this being a hit in my holiday baskets, so must figure this one out soon!
I have been nibbling on it all day. This was rather easy but you had to be quick about it. I’m glad your friend enjoyed it.
Oh Tracey, that looks delicious! I love toffee.
Your toffee looks fabulous! I keep walking by the counter and breaking off a tiny piece. My hubby wasn’t impressed, but he’s a cake and cookie man. 🙂
Thank you for baking with me! I’m glad that your toffee-loving friend enjoyed it, and that even you enjoyed the bite that you sampled.
Your toffee looks wonderful! We loved this recipe.
Happy Bundt Day to you, too! I did three bakes today, so no bundts for me.
Great looking candy! I liked this recipe a lot.
Your toffee crunch looks great! I thought it was pretty easy to make too.
That looks phenomenal!
Your toffee is spectacular looking (and I’m a huge fan of toffee, it might be my favorite flavor of all candy) And tell Alex that he did an amazing job of taste testing – not only a thumbs up but also an explanation of how the flavors worked together – I’m impressed!
I love toffee. Definitely on my holiday must-make list. Thank you!
Great job, Tracey! I wish I didn’t like toffee so much, this is dangerous to have around. I had trouble with the time, so it might be time for me invest in a good candy thermometer, thanks for the tip!
Hi Tracey!
It is SO wonderful to hear from you- I’ve missed you all these weeks that I’ve been away from SMS 🙁 I have a lot of catch up reading to do… I just did a quick scroll of your site, and boy oh boy, everything looks DELISH (as always!) I’ve wanted to try those Rocky Ledge Bars ever since I saw them in the MS holiday cookie issue a few years back, and now that they received two thumbs up from you, they’re moving to the top of my list! But back to SMS- your toffee came out fantastic! I’m so glad you had success with the recipe. I agree, it will make a lovely gift for family and friends during the holidays.
I hope you’re doing well and have a fabulous start to your week. Can’t wait to talk to you again soon 🙂
<3,
Joy
Your toffee looks perfect! I have a check on the thermometer and a check on the heavy-bottomed saucepan. I really think I messed up with the baking soda. Oh well!
Anyway, that toffee looks great, and I would definitely have gobbled it up!
Congrats on achieving PERFECT toffee! I am always so happy to see someone mastering something they’ve have trouble with in the past.
This toffee looks amazing! My aunt makes it and I’m always so impressed. I’m glad to hear it’s easy 🙂
at least you had a willing sampler to make up for not loving it. i’m with you – i’d rather BUY candy, and MAKE cookies. candy is too finicky!
If you don’t like toffee and it’s looking for a home, I can send you my address. It looks fabulous.
o wow! these look absolutely amazing! beautiful job!
Yum… sounds perfect for Christmas gifts… or perhaps to serve with the other finger foods for Thanksgiving!
I’ve never made straight toffee like this. It looks wonderful. I always make that saltine toffee candy at Christmas, but I might give this one a try.
How great that you had someone to give your toffee to! It looks amazing. Perfect. I’m not much of a candy person, but I have always loved toffee, and I’m going to make this again to give out around the holidays.
i’ll be tackling this one again. its something the fiance actually likes and i want to master it 🙂
your toffee looks magical 🙂
Fortunately, Tracey made a ton of this stuff so I have been enjoying this all week!