By ShowMeStepByStepPublished
Based on a video by Double Stop Bake Shop .
Four ingredients, seven minutes of stirring, and no candy thermometer. That last part is why this recipe is worth having - traditional toffee means watching a thermometer for hard-crack stage, and the fear of getting it wrong is what stops most people making it at all.
This version, from Double Stop Bake Shop, replaces the thermometer with a timer. Cook butter and brown sugar for seven minutes, stirring the whole time, and it lands where it needs to land.
The result is crisp buttery toffee over a layer of toasted pecans, under melted chocolate, broken into shards.
No, and it is worth being clear because both get called toffee.
This is English toffee - butter and sugar actually cooked into candy. Christmas crack is a tray of saltine crackers with a quick toffee poured over them, and it takes two minutes of boiling rather than seven. Crack is faster and salty; this is denser, buttery and closer to a confection.
If you are filling a gift tin, they are good together precisely because they are different.
One stick of salted butter, 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, one cup of toasted pecans, and a heaping half cup of chocolate chips. That is it.
It stays chewy. Undercooked. Seven full minutes at a proper bubble, not five.
It separates into a greasy layer. You stopped stirring, or the heat was too high. Medium to medium-high and constant motion.
It tastes burnt. Sugar caught on the base of the pan. A heavy-based saucepan and constant stirring prevent it.
Three-ingredient fudge needs no cooking at all, peppermint bark is a melt-and-set job, and gingerbread cookies cover the baked half.
10 steps · about 8 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Chop one cup of toasted pecans, roughly rather than fine. You want pieces you can see in the finished shard.
Toasting is worth the two minutes in a dry pan. Raw nuts go soft under hot toffee; toasted ones stay crisp and taste of something.
Pistachios and toasted almonds both work. Pistachios give a green fleck that looks deliberate at Christmas.
Tip
Toast them well ahead and let them cool. Warm nuts steam under the toffee.
Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper, leaving a little overhang so you have something to lift by.
You can butter the pan instead and it usually works. Parchment is the only way to guarantee the slab comes out cleanly, and it is the difference between lifting the toffee out in one piece and chiselling it.
If you use parchment, do not butter it as well. The toffee will not stick to it.
Tip
Crease the parchment into the corners first. Left to bridge them, the toffee runs underneath and sets against the metal.
Sprinkle three quarters of the chopped pecans across the base of the pan and spread them into an even layer.
Hold the last quarter cup back. That goes on top of the chocolate at the end, and it is what makes the finished pieces look like something you would give away.
Even coverage matters here, because the toffee sets around the nuts. A bare patch becomes a piece with nothing in it.
Tip
Shake the pan side to side rather than pressing the nuts down. They only need to be spread, not compacted.
One stick of salted butter and three quarters of a cup of packed brown sugar into a saucepan over medium to medium-high heat.
If you only have unsalted butter, add a quarter teaspoon of salt. Toffee without salt tastes flat and sugary rather than buttery.
Stir gently as the butter melts so the two come together rather than sitting in layers.
Tip
Pack the brown sugar into the cup properly. Loosely scooped it can be a third short, and that changes how the toffee sets.
When the mixture starts to bubble, stir constantly. Not every so often - constantly, without stopping.
This is the whole technique. Butter and sugar separate the moment you stop moving them, and the sugar catches on the base of the pan within seconds. Burnt sugar cannot be stirred back in; it taints the batch.
Use a heavy-based pan if you have one. Thin pans have hot spots and hot spots are where it catches.
Tip
Have everything else ready before this point. You cannot walk away from the pan once it starts.
Keep stirring for a full seven minutes by the clock. No candy thermometer, no judging soft-ball or hard-crack stage - the timer does that job, which is what makes this recipe worth having.
Watch it change while you stir. The colour deepens from pale gold to a dark caramel brown, and the bubbles change sound as the water cooks out of it.
If your cooktop runs hot, turn it down to medium. Do not shorten the seven minutes - that is the part that sets the toffee hard.
Tip
Set an actual timer. Seven minutes of constant stirring feels much longer than it is, and guessing is how it comes out chewy.
Off the heat and straight over the nuts, then spread it out with a spatula.
Move quickly. Toffee at this temperature begins firming within seconds of leaving the pan and it does not soften again. Get it to the corners and stop worrying about how it looks.
Tip
Do not scrape the very last of the pan out. Whatever has been sitting against the hot metal longest is the most likely to be scorched.
Scatter a heaping half cup of chocolate chips over the toffee while it is still hot.
A level half cup tends to look thin once it melts down, so be generous. Semi-sweet is the right balance against toffee this buttery, but milk or dark chocolate both work if that is what you prefer.
Tip
Scatter them across the whole surface rather than heaping the middle. They melt where they land and barely spread on their own.
Cover the pan with a baking sheet or a pizza pan and leave it for two minutes.
Trapping the heat melts the chips far more evenly than leaving them open to the air, and it means you never have to put chocolate near direct heat.
Lift the cover and spread the chocolate out with a spatula. It does not need to be smooth - nuts are going straight on top of it.
Tip
If the chips still hold their shape after two minutes, cover it again for one more rather than pressing at them.
Sprinkle the reserved quarter cup of nuts over the soft chocolate, then tap the pan on the counter a few times so they press in and stay put rather than falling off later.
Let it cool until the chocolate sets. A few minutes in the fridge speeds it up, and you only need long enough for the top to firm.
Lift the slab out by the parchment and break it into irregular shards by hand. It keeps in an airtight tin for a couple of weeks and layers well between parchment for gifting.
Tip
Break it while it is cool but not fridge-cold. Fully chilled chocolate shatters and separates from the toffee.
Keep going
How to Make Christmas Crack
10 steps · about 8 minutes
How to Make Toffee
How to Make Toffee
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5 questions covering what you just read. No signup, no score saved, and you can stop after this one.
Question 1 of 5
What replaces the candy thermometer in this toffee recipe?
Quick reference
5 questions, answers, and one-line explanations. Tap to expand.
1.What replaces the candy thermometer in this toffee recipe?
Answer: A timer: seven minutes of constant stirring
Seven minutes at a steady bubble lands the sugar where hard-crack would, without measuring it.
2.Why toast the pecans before they go under the toffee?
Answer: Raw nuts go soft under hot toffee, toasted ones stay crisp
Toasted nuts hold their crunch and taste of something once the hot toffee sets around them.
3.The recipe says stir constantly once the mixture bubbles. What goes wrong if you stop?
Answer: Butter and sugar separate and the sugar catches
Burnt sugar cannot be stirred back in, so the pan needs constant motion the whole seven minutes.
4.Why cover the pan for two minutes after scattering chocolate chips on the hot toffee?
Answer: Trapped heat melts the chips evenly with no direct heat
The residual heat under a lid melts the chips far more evenly than leaving them open to the air.
5.You only have unsalted butter. What does the recipe say to do?
Answer: Add a quarter teaspoon of salt so the toffee tastes buttery
Toffee without salt tastes flat and sugary rather than buttery.
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