Easy toffee
Saturday, December 25, 2010 
We celebrated Christmas early due to my husband's work schedule, but it just didn't feel right to not make any candy for Christmas day. I usually make toffee because 99.9% of the time I have all of the ingredients for this easy version on hand. So if you have 15 minutes and a few standard items in your kitchen, you'll be enjoying a wonderful treat in no time.
Easy Toffee
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dash salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Prepare your pan first because you don't want to dilly dally around once you've got hot toffee in your pot!
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. It works best. If you don't have any, then liberally butter your baking sheet. Put your candy thermometer by the stove. It's a must. You'll get really inconsistent results without one.
Ok, now we can begin!
Use a medium to large, heavy bottomed boiler. Add butter, sugar, and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly with a WOODEN spoon. Continue cooking and stirring for ten minutes. Remove spoon and insert candy thermometer. Cook until hard crack stage which is 300 - 310 degrees F. Remove from heat and stir in salt and vanilla.
Pour onto prepared baking sheet and spread around until it's no thicker than 1/4 inch. Let it cool for 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the hot toffee. Let them sit and melt for a minute. Then use a spatula to spread the chocolate around evenly. Go with whatever chocolate you want from milk to dark. They're all wonderful. Today I used semi-sweet because that's what I pulled from the pantry.
Allow the toffee to totally cool and the chocolate to set. Then break into pieces and store in an air tight container. I'm not sure how long it will keep because mine never lasts more than 2 days!
Enjoy a quick, impressive sweet treat! You may never buy another toffee bar again!!
Keep lovin' and keep cookin'.
