Nutty Chocolate-Covered Toffee

This was a really good recipe. Not the easiest recipe, but definitely worth it. I had to go out and purchase a candy thermometer for this one since I've never made candy before, but I'm glad I did. Now I will have to find some more candy recipes to try.

One of the ingredients is soy lecithin and I still have no idea what that is. The recipe called it optional so I didn't bother with it this time as I was in a bit of a time crunch. Maybe next time I'll try to figure out what it is.

Be prepared to earn your cooking muscles on this one. You really have to stir this a lot and it starts getting thicker and thicker the hotter the mixture gets. We just kept the thermometer clipped to the side of the pot and stirred. And stirred. And stirred....I'm not even sure if we made it up to the 300 degrees it asked for, but we got pretty close and decided to just go for it.

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup golden syrup or corn syrup
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp soy lecithin (optional)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 lb bittersweet chocolate, chopped
•  2 cups chopped toasted pecans (optional)

Grease a rimmed baking sheet and line it with parchment paper, allowing the parchment paper to climb up two opposite ends. This will make it easy to remove the toffee from the pan after it cools. Place the sugar, golden syrup or corn syrup, butter, heavy cream, cream of tartar, salt, and soy lecithin in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until combined. Reduce heat to medium-low. Wash down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in hot water to get rid of sugar crystals. Just a few crystals on the sides can cause the toffee to recrystallize.

Clip candy thermometer to the saucepan. Continue cooking, stirring constantly until the temperature reaches 300 degrees.

Remove the pan from the heat and quickly stir in the vanilla. Quickly pour the mixture into the prepared pan and spread evening to the edges with a wooden spoon. You need to move fast because the candy hardens quickly. Cool completely in the pan.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave. Spread half the chocolate over the toffee, then sprinkle half the pecans evenly over the chocolate, patting it down with your hands to make sure it sticks. Refrigerate for 10 minutes to allow the chocolate to set.

When the chocolate is hard, tug a corner of the parchment paper to loosen the toffee, then carefully flip it over and peel off the parchment paper. Spread the remaining chocolate over the toffee and sprinkle the remaining pecans over the chocolate, patting them down with your hands. When the chocolate is set, break the toffee into irregular pieces.

NOTES: You can't eat more than a small piece at a time because it is so rich. I'm not a nutty person (I know some people would disagree) so we only did half the toffee with nuts. We ate some of it plain, like candy, but actually ended up mixing most with vanilla ice cream and Bailey's Irish Cream in our Magic Bullet to make a yummy milkshake (our favorite, traditional, version of this shake is just mint chocolate chip ice cream with Bailey's. Definitely recommend it!).

Serves: 12-16
Prep Time: 50 min
Total Time: 1 hr 10 min

Recipe from Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook