First Attempt at Candy Making=Success!

 

Woohoo!  I have officially made candy from scratch!  And as you can tell from the title, that was a first for me!

Basically, I tried a Heath bar several months ago (I had never had one before), and I really liked it.  So, periodically, I've been craving toffee.  A little while ago, I saw a recipe for toffee on Pinterest that looked pretty easy and didn't require the purchase of a candy thermometer.

I finally got around to trying it, and...  It worked!  Woohoo!  I was (still am) super excited about it!  I feel like it was easy to make, except that my arm was about to fall off from all the stirring, and my hand looked a little mangled after cutting the (very) hard finished product.

I got this wonderful recipe from Shugary Sweets via Pinterest, and I made the recipe pretty much according to hers, but I've decided that next time, I will make a few changes.  I've updated the recipe below to reflect the changes I will make, but feel free to head on over to Shugary Sweets to grab the original; she also has directions on how to make the toffee using brownie bite pans to keep the difficult cutting to a minimum.  Thanks to Aimee for sharing a wonderful recipe with very easy-to-follow directions!

So, here's the recipe for what I think was some pretty insanely easy toffee!

Chocolate Covered Toffee
Adapted from: Shugary Sweets
Makes: 5x9 pan, cut into 12-15 bites

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (I actually bought real butter for this one, not margarine.)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 ounces milk chocolate

Directions:

1. Line a 9x5 pan with aluminum foil.  Set aside.
2. In a saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt.
3. Over medium-high heat, stir the mixture constantly until the butter is melted.  Continue stirring vigorously until the mixture comes to a rolling boil.
4. Once the mixture starts boiling, continue stirring at the same heat for 5-7 minutes.  The mixture will change color slightly.  Shugary Sweets suggests it will look like the color of almonds and also mentioned that this would be at about 300 degrees.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.  Allow it to cool at room temperature until set, about 2 hours.
6. Melt the chocolate (I use the microwave), and pour it over the toffee.  Allow it to cool and set.
7. Cut the finished toffee into pieces.  Enjoy!

I really enjoyed my first candy-making experience!  If you've never made candy before, this is an easy recipe to start with!