English Toffees family first - flopped?!

Ronit

Fri, Apr 06 2012, 10:24 am

Anyone made the english toffees from the family first? Is there a mistake or did I do something wrong?

hhmm maybe I shouldn't have doubled the recipe? Could that have been the problem?

Batch # 1
I cooked in a disposable pan cuz I didnt have a milchig pot.
It came out good, but
-wasn't tough enough
-got some bits in it from the bottom even while continueously mixing. It didn't taste burnt, but it didn't look perfect.
- It took like three hours to cook versus the 1 hour it wrote. Very annoying, cuz I didn't want it to burn & it wasted a ton of time I didn't have to spare.

Batch # 2
I got a pot & figured this time I would allow it to cook even longer & it would get stiffer/thicker. (I was afraid to leave it longer when I cooked in a pan because I was afraid it would burn. )
While standing over it, I highered the flame a bit so I did take quicker than the first batch. It took me two hours- but still double time that they wrote. It still wouldn't get as thick as I'd like, so I ended up adding a bit more sugar at the end & cooked it on low while mixing it. It did the trick, but ruined the texture. I don't feel like trying again, but I think it needs more sugar in the recipe. Obviously you need to add the sugar right away when you start cooking it.

Uch this is so annoying. The first batch I ended up pouring over a brownie & it was a hit cuz it's softish. The second one I cut in squares, but you taste the sugar cystals so it's not good. You think I can salvage it?

Liba

Sun, Apr 08 2012, 1:33 pm

I don't follow directions well...

What I did:

in large pot on medium flame caramelized 3 cups of sugar with 25 grams of butter, it took about 10 minutes to get a nice caramel brown color and liquid sugar.

Then I turned down the heat and added another 175grams of butter (just about 7oz total, two American sticks of butter should work I think) and stirred.

All still seemed well. Very Happy

Then I added about a liter of milk (4 cups) and 250ml (1 cup) of heavy cream.

The caramelized sugar became solid and tasted like those crunchy toffee bars. Very Happy

I turned the heat back up and stirred and stirred. It took about half an hour to get the sugar remelted and mixed into the milk.

45 minutes later we had beautiful thick caramel. I poured into into a pan lined with parchment paper which I lightly oiled.

It is a bit on the sweet side, but it cooked into wonderful, thick, cream solid caramels.

Very Happy

All in all, as long as it doesn't chv"sh burn I don't think you can go wrong with sugar, cream, milk and butter. Very Happy

Liba

Mon, Apr 09 2012, 3:06 am

Ronit wrote:

That looks great Liba, but where's that recipe from?

The one printed in Mishpacha is as follows:
1/2 qt milk
5Tb oil
10-15 TB sugar

As I said, I don't follow directions well. I looked at the Family First recipe, looked at your comments, went on line and looked at other recipes and then did my own thing. I didn't want oil in my candy, that seemed gross. I don't "do" recipes that call for 15 tablespoons of anything (that is basically a cup). The other recipes I saw only called for only heavy cream and no milk, but I only had a little bit of cream left, so I wasn't following those recipes either. I figured, you can't go too far wrong with sugar, butter, milk and cream.

But no, the recipe isn't from anywhere. It came out delicious so I took the time to type is up and share it though. I am sure that someone else can improve on it. Very Happy

Ronit

Mon, Apr 09 2012, 11:03 am

Ah I get it. Your recipe is definitely more similar to the ones I found online too. It looks amazing! A pity I searched after I already did it. It makes sence, since butter & heavy cream both solidify better than oil & milk. Oh well Sad

Regardless, I don't use butter or heavy cream on pesach, so that's out.

Should I remelt my candies? You think if I cook them on low for awhile the sugar will liquidize completely?