I love, love, love English Toffee.  I printed this recipe from Ghirardelli years ago and just now got up the courage to try my hand at ‘confection’ making.  According to the red line on my new candy thermometer, I’ll be in the confection stage.  I can do this!

Butter, sugar, water and salt go into a heavy bottom pot.  The mixture is cooked over medium heat until it reaches the ‘Hard Crack’ stage.  Having no idea how long this would take I kept a close watch, stirring occasionally.  Minutes passed and the sugar mixture came to a nice rolling boil.  So I kept stirring, watching the hand on the thermometer in anticipation.  Much to my dismay the temp. was barely increasing, yet after about 15 minutes my sugar mixture began to turn a dark brown.  I bailed out on the thermometer and poured the mixture onto my prepared pan.  While I waited for it to cool, I did a little ‘toffee research’ and came upon this article from Joy of Baking.  Key words in bold that stood out…. “without stirring.”   Seems I was tricking my thermometer into thinking my mixture was cooler than it was.

The pan on the right, batch #1….essence of burnt sugar.  Lesson learned.  After adjusting my method and ‘not stirring’ my second batch, the pan on the left was perfect.

Once the toffee has cooled to room temperature, melted chocolate and a generous sprinkle of chopped walnuts are spread on top.  It was then that I proclaimed “Babe, come quick…I think I just made English Toffee.”

I delivered the toffee to work today to Share the Love with our customers.  It’s become a tradition each year to send as many customers as possible a tin of home baked treats from all of us.

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English Toffee {Share the Love}

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 55 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Author lightly adapted from Ghirardelli Chocolates

Ingredients

• 8 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet baking chocolate
• 3/4 cup walnuts finely chopped
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 Tbl. water
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toast the chopped walnuts on a baking sheet for 6-8 minutes. Reserve.
• Line a baking sheet with heavy foil, folded with a 1-inch high edge. Reserve.
• In a heavy bottom saucepan, cook the butter, sugar, water and salt over medium heat until the temperature reaches 305 degrees (hard-crack stage), without stirring. This will take about 15 minutes. If the sugar mixture begins browning unevenly give the pan a swirl. Keep a close eye on it once it reaches 290 degrees as the temperature will increase quickly.
• Remove the pan from the heat and immediately stir in the vanilla extract. Pour the mixture onto the foil lined baking sheet and allow it to spread. Cool at room temperature for 45 minutes.
• Melt chocolate according to package instructions. Spread melted chocolate over cooled toffee, then sprinkle with walnuts. Let set at room temperature until the chocolate has set. Break toffee into pieces. Store covered at room temperature.

Notes

The total time required is comprised of two 45 minute resting periods.

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It was time for another Adventure in Chocolate.  I started something kind of fun.  Every other week or so I will choose one of my work-mates to select a recipe, that I then recreate, picture, post about, and deliver to them to Share the Love.  This time up I chose Allan and he chose Chocolate Rum Balls.

I chose Allan, because a couple of weeks ago when I started this new ritual and was in need of recipe inspiration, I turned to the only person I know that might have a greater chocolate addiction than I do.  I said, “Wendy, I need you to deliver me a recipe for something decadent and chocolate.  I’ll make it, pictured it, post about it, then deliver it to you to devour.”  You may remember our fabulous Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache.  We have Wendy to thank for that lovely recipe.

Well it seems in all of her excitement, while Wendy did share the love with some in the office….she never made it around to Allan before whisking off with the remaining half a cheesecake and heading for home.  It was only fair to offer him a means of retaliation, in the nicest way of course.

His choice of Chocolate Rum Balls was outstanding.  And this super simple recipe from Food Network was a bonus.

Chopped semisweet and bittersweet chocolate are melted over simmering water.

Cubed butter is then stirred in until nice and creamy.

Next, the confectioners sugar and rum are stirred into the chocolate mixture until a dough is formed.

Notice the texture in the picture above.  The chocolate dough is pliable, easy to roll into 1-inch balls for dipping in chocolate sprinkles.  DO NOT REFRIGERATE MIXTURE.  If you don’t have time to roll the balls now or if you were to say run out of chocolate sprinkles (hmm mmm) before finishing the rolling and coating step, just simply seal the chocolate mixture in an airtight container until ready to roll.

One small container of chocolate sprinkles will coat approximately 15 1-inch balls.  I will buy the big tub next time :) since the recipe will easily make 50 delicious Chocolate Rum Balls.  Thank Allan for a stellar choice.

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Chocolate Rum Balls {Share the Love}

Author Food Network

Ingredients

• 4 oz. semisweet chocolate cut into small pieces
• 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate cut into small pieces
• 1 stick butter cut into small pieces
• 4 cups powdered confectioners sugar
• 3 Tbl. dark rum I used Bacardi Gold
• Chocolate sprinkles for rolling (Lg. tub)

Instructions

• In a medium metal bowl, combine both types of chocolate and melt over a pot of simmering water. Whisk in the butter pieces. Whisk in the sugar and rum.
• Put sprinkles in a shallow bowl. Roll the chocolate mixture into small balls, about 1-inch in diameter. Roll them in sprinkles until they are fully coated. Store them in an airtight container.

If you loved these Chocolate Rum Balls you might also enjoy Vanilla Rum Balls.

Vanilla Rum Balls

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