The Continued Mutilation of Toffee; I present Coffee Toffee

So in the spirit of trying for perfection I decided to go back to the toffee board again.  This time I came prepared with the following thoughts;  the chocolate last time was a disaster and we found the toffee was just delicious when we scraped the chocolate off.  I decided this time I would just omit the chocolate... for now.  Not that I am tossing it to the wind completely mind you but just putting it on the side bar for this experiment. I thought I would try adding coffee this time around; I love coffee and toffee why not pair them.

Then for the future I can add the chocolate top with coffee toffee to get a rich mocha flavor (which is the pairing of coffee and chocolate) I thought it may just make it the ultimate treat.

Using the recipe in the last entry on 8/12/2014  I moved forward with my idea. I already had the perfect toffee now just add coffee right?  Hmmm so how to go about doing that.  If I add a liquid it may not solidify properly. Or I may have to add more sugar or or or.  What I went forward with a  rounded heaping tablespoon of instant coffee.  I used Nescafe and added to the sugar and butter at the beginning and just melted it in. 

Then several things happened. The toffee was way darker then it was before so my take a ways from the amber color changing at the right moment really didn't help this time.  I used the candy thermometer and cooked the candy to 300 degrees.  Not only was my candy darker caused by the coffee but it also seemed to foam up a bit more.  Because of that I assumed I needed to stir it more to keep it from riding up the side.  I really don't know why I thought that but it was a mistake.  I should have stuck with my original actions.  You see there is so much butter in the recipe there really is no risk for it sticking.  I should have known better but hey then I wouldn't be writing this.

Once the butter is melted and melded in there in no reason to stir it other then a few times during the boiling process till it hits 300 degrees.  I found the more you stir it, it seems to add additional air and this cools the candy down and causes it to crisp too soon in the pan.  So note to self this was definitely an inferior design on my part.   Do not stir too often. 

Next thing I noted was it didn't have the creaminess that it had last time.  Can two tablespoons of coffee affect the consistency that much?  Apparently.  Unfortunately its too late for me but not for you!  You can see in the picture above that the candy actually was hardening right out of the pan and didn't seal around all of the nuts.  There are creases you can see where I had to push the candy into place and air pockets around the pecans.   What to do... Hmm well here is what I would change to make this a non-inferior design. 

First off next time I would add less coffee.  The flavor of the heaping tablespoon was way too over powering and the candy lost the creamy taste of the toffee.  Remember we want a delicate melding not a hostile take over.  So I probably would cut it down to a rounded teaspoon.  Next I would add the same amount of additional butter as coffee.  So if you add a rounded teaspoon, add two teaspoons more butter to compensate for the dry ingredient.   I truly believe that will make the difference.  Don't let the darker color scare you either just keep the mixture rolling on enough heat to keep it roiling. High to start then turn it down once it boils to keep it at a boiling point but not going crazy.  We want to keep the air out of it.   Remember this is a fun and easy experiment it takes less then 15 minutes to make this.

Not that the above wasn't tasty but it could be better.  So back to the cutting board and please let me know if you try this I would love to hear and see your results.  You could be featured on our DIY.