Homemade Toffee

Could there be anything better than toffee? This morsel of glassy, caramelly, deliciousness has a little story. About 5 years ago, I attended a sport party, probably the Super Bowl, where a woman brought homemade toffee. Since then, each time we go to the home where the party was hosted, I ask about this woman and when she'll be at another party so I can quiz her about toffee. That day finally arrived about a week ago and to my amazement -- the recipe was extremely easy (just a lot of stirring)! So I made a batch. The most important thing to remember about toffee is to cook it long enough to where the butter is almost burnt so you get that great color. I don't use a candy thermometer, just eyeball it, but you do need to watch that pot!

Homemade Toffee

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped almonds

Add butter and sugar into a heavy medium pot. Cook, stirring constanly, over high heat for about 8 to 10 minutes.

The stages to look for: butter will melt and blend with the sugar, butter will foam, mixture will start to get sticky like taffy, mixture will quickly start to turn amber - this is when you take it off the heat! Pour mixture on to an ungreased baking sheet that doesn't have a coating such as Teflon.

At this point, the woman who shared the recipe just puts semi-sweet chocolate chips on the hot toffee, which melts them, and sprinkles the almonds on top. I chose to let the toffee cool and harden, then melted milk chocolate chips and smoothed them on top. Sprinkle almonds over the chocolate and you're good to go!

Makes about half a baking sheet; @ 8X8-inch toffee rectangle

Photo Credit: John Sparano