the delish dish, smitten kitchen's coffee toffee

smitten kitchen’s coffee toffee

i’m in love with deb from smitten kitchen. her blog is so beautiful and well-written and none of her recipes ever dissapoint. my obsession started well over a year ago, and last holiday season i made assorted christmas cookie boxes for my friends, filling them with chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, and chocolate toffee cookies (my favorite!). i also made her hazelnut brown butter cake for a holiday party and it too ended up being a huge hit. being a major toffee fan, when i saw her new recipe for coffee toffee, i could not wait to give it a try. if you have a sweet tooth, i reeally recommend you make this as it was the best toffee i had ever had!

let the holiday baking/candy making begin!!!

*note: in my everyday baking/cooking i try to be very health conscious, but when it comes to the holidays i can’t help but splurge a bit. i still try to use top-quality and organic ingredients as much as possible. but no worries, healthy recipes will be back soon :)

Coffee Toffee Recipe (adapted from smitten kitchen)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons molasses (i used honey)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (i used dark chocolate chips) 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts (toasted, skinned and cooled) or another nut of your choice

1) The most time consuming part of this recipe is the hazelnut prep. I toasted mine for 10 minutes in a cookie sheet in the oven, let them cool a bit, and then used a paper towel to skin them. I think this step is sooo worth it, but if you’re in a rush you can skip this and just buy chopped hazelnuts for the topping.

Toasted, naked, chopped hazelnuts:

2) Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat and set aside.

3) In medium heavy saucepan with a candy thermometer attached, melt butter, brown sugar, white sugar, honey, salt and espresso together over together. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a whisk (making sure to get into the corners!) until the temperature approaches 250F, at which point you should stir constantly until it reaches 300F.

Starting out:

Getting lighter/caramely at 250F:

Here it is almost ready:

4) Pour immediately into the prepared baking sheet and spread with spatula (quickly before it sets). Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the toffee and let them sit for a minute until soft, then spread the chocolate evenly over the candy base.

Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips melting: