Treacle / Bonfire Toffee

mrbadexample

Ok, need a few tips please! How do I make sure I can get it out of the tin? Can I line it with cling film?

And I haven't got a sugar thermometer, will I be ok?

mrbadexample

Ok, I still need help! Questions above, and can anyone suggest how I can present this nicely please?

mrbadexample

I'm making this with dark brown sugar, salted butter, black treacle (what's brown treacle?) and I haven't got a non-stick pan.

Am I asking for trouble?

mrbadexample

Ok, I now have a slab of very sticky toffee. How can I best store this until Christmas? And how can I package it nicely for a present?

It is a little on the soft side. I think if it's kept anywhere remotely warm it'll weld itself into a ball.

Can I re-melt this, or will I have to start again to get it harder?

Please help!

emiff6

I'm not sure that melting and re-boiling would work, but you could give it a go - melt over a very low heat so it doesn't burn before it gets runny again. Toffee needs to be heated until when you drop half a teaspoonful into cold water it makes threads that are slightly flexible, but will snap.

Or you could melt it, add a bag of marshmallows and melt them, then stir in rice krispies, pour into a tin and leave to set for crispy, chewy bars. I used to buy toffee to make these!

Using butter in a toffee recipe always keeps the toffee softer than making just with treacle, sugar and water, and makes the toffee more sort of cloudy, less shiny and brittle.

Have a look at these toffee recipes.

http://britishfood.about.com/od/festivecooking/r/parkin.htm

emiff6

Or if it is very soft, maybe you could turn it into fudge, Melt and reheat until hot, then remove from the heat and beat with a WOODEN spoon until it goes grainy and fudge-like, then pour into a buttered tray to set. Don't beat too long or it will set in the pan. HTH

mrbadexample

Help at last! :T

Well, I don't think I mistimed it by much. In the fridge, it's hard & brittle. Take it out, and it becomes pliable, and handling it leaves obvious fingerprints (not ideal for a present, even if my hands are clean!). I think it's ok, but I don't know how to gift-package it. If I put it in a box, it'll weld itself together, and to everything else. I put it on some greaseproof paper earlier, and it stuck to that.

Any suggestions? I have considered buying some from Thorntons and then using their bag, but that kind of defeats the object.

emiff6

What you need is waxed paper, which is what Thorntons use in their toffee boxes. You can buy rolls of it like greaseproof. Or silicon paper would probably work too. Use it to line the box or tin and separate the layers. It doesn't matter if the toffee in each layer sticks together, after all, Thornton's toffee does, and that's good stuff. Perhaps you could just put a little tag on the box that says "best kept refrigerated" or something?
I'm sure it will be great!

mrbadexample

emiff6 wrote: »

What you need is waxed paper, which is what Thorntons use in their toffee boxes. You can buy rolls of it like greaseproof. Or silicon paper would probably work too. Use it to line the box or tin and separate the layers. It doesn't matter if the toffee in each layer sticks together, after all, Thornton's toffee does, and that's good stuff. Perhaps you could just put a little tag on the box that says "best kept refrigerated" or something?
I'm sure it will be great!

I took some out of fridge and hit it. If shattered quite satisfyingly into some big and small shards. I left these in a plastic container overnight, to see what would happen to them in the warm. Sure enough, when I got up this morning I had one big bit again. :rotfl:



It's not too bad - it did take all night in a warm room to do this, so I didn't mistime it by much. I will be making another batch though. I'll have this lot.

FarmersWife_2

Ive looked and searched... found all sorts but not a toffee recipe...

Help please


C x