Ode to toffee...

So a few of us girls (Amy, Rebekah, me and Becca) had a candy making night a few weekends ago where I was determined to create, for the first time, my mothers toffee. Rebekah had attempted her own toffee at home not too long before this, and hers apparently had not turned out so well. So, with her by my side, we decided this was the moment to make some work. I decided to follow the recipe, although the instructions were very broad : "use highest heat, stir until light caramel color". It seemd to work every time for my mom in years past, so how hard could it be? I cranked up the heat and started stirring. It never quite got to a caramel color before it started turning to a white, bubbly, surgary, weird substance. Rebekah and I were freaking out a little bit wondering if we had gone too far, so we decided just to pour it on top of the almonds and see if it worked. It didn't. It hardened to the consistency of sugar stuck together with a little bit of water. It tasted like toffee but it wasn't anything I wanted to eat. So, we tried again. This time we decided to cook it past that stage and maybe the caramel color would come later. Oh no. We got past that stage then got to the sight of butter separating to the top. Maybe this would work.. we poured it on the almonds and watched as the butter stayed on the top, forming a lovely layer of toffee grease. Trash. At this point I was frustrated but even more determined. I decided the third time was the charm. I figured maybe if I stirred faster the butter wouldn't separate (not so smart) and if I cooked it longer maybe it would all come together. I mean, come on, it has three ingredients and you just stir it together... it should work eventually...right? Wrong. This fast stirring idea just lead to grease splatter burns on my stirring hand and cooking it longer led to a pan full of black sludge. Literally. It was pathetic.

You would think at this point I would have thought to myself, my toffee-making career had run its course. Not so much. I searched for my problem online, and found out I was making three mistakes. My heat was too high, my stirring too fast ( there went my theory) and I was supposed to be using salted butter. I was not the only one who was surprised by the salted butter thing. So, last Sunday I decided at home to try it one more time. With Daniel and my brother Keith cheering me on, I stirred that salted butter concoction slowly and evenly. Soon, I saw it. Beautiful, glorious, perfectly light caramel color turning to the consistency of a fine taffy. I had done it! I poured that bad boy on my almonds, melted the chocolate on top and TADA!!! TOFFEE!! I've never been so proud of something made in my kitchen.

So now you know... salted butter and slow, constant stirring. I'm gonna make some more tonight.