Chewy toffee

I decided to try my hand at chewy toffee after experimenting with my crumbles recipes.  Some of them don’t work quite so well with my current caramel.  Because the contents of some of my crumbles are quite gooey, they needed something a little chewier to hold them together. I thought rather than my usual fudge and double cream mixture, I’d try a version with chewy toffee.  This took quite a few attempts to get right, because I still wanted that lovely rich, buttery taste that you get with a fudge, while retaining the chewiness of a toffee.

This is the version I now use in my S’more Crumbles recipe as it helps the crumble to keep its shape much better.  It’s rather like the kind of chewy toffee you used to get in Quality Street (until they replaced it!)  Just on the ride side of soft and chewy.  If you want to be really indulgent you can leave it as one huge square and just eat it like one massive toffee chunk!

They are quite sticky (in that the toffees stick together) so they’re best cut into squares and left separately on greaseproof paper or something similar.  I made the mistake the first time I made these of cutting them into pieces and putting them all in a sealed jar together.  About an hour later they were all stuck together like modern toffee art!

Ingredients

• 11½ ounces / 325g double cream
• 7 ounces / 200g caster sugar
• 4½ ounces / 130g demerara sugar
• 3½ ounces / 100g golden syrup
• ½ ounce / 15g unsalted butter, cubed

Method

Line a 8  x 8 inches / 20 x 20cm tray with greaseproof paper.

Put all of the ingredients (except the butter) into a large, heavy bottomed pan.

On a low-medium heat begin to heat the pan, stirring constantly until the sugar has melted and is fully combined.

Continue to stir until the mixture starts to boil.  Then you want to heat without stirring.

Continue to heat until the mixture reaches 120°C / 248°F and then remove from the heat.  (It’s best to do this slowly in increments rather than by quickly turning the heat up, otherwise the toffee will catch.  If you find the temperature isn’t going up, just turn the heat up slightly and leave for a little while.  Keep doing this until the temperature increases sufficiently – it will, I promise!)

Add the butter and stir for a minute or two until fully combined.

Pour the mixture into your lined tray and leave for 90 minutes to set.

Cut into squares, rectangles or whatever you prefer!  If you want a slightly harder chewy toffee, you can put it in the fridge to set, but be warned, it’s harder to slice!

TRY S’MORES CRUMBLES