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Friday, September 23, 2011

toffee shocks and the enchanted wood











One of our most beloved authors is Enid Blyton. She wrote many series of books from the 1930's on. The Fairaway Tree series is a favortie that we have read and reread numerous times.  With lovable and weird characters, adventures in different lands, sibling loyalty and a bit of magic...these books make for the perfect bedtime story. 

Recently, we were lucky enough to be invited to a Faraway Tree Tea Party. We brought "toffee shocks," one of the many notable foods mentioned in the tales. Toffee shocks get bigger in your mouth as you eat them and then disappear. We thought the closest thing would be the gooey, chewy caramels my husband makes every Christmas. I wrapped them up like little packages and the kids ate them up. 

Here is the recipe we use from www.epicurious.com. We love the salt and have also added pistachios (yum) and herbs de Provence (wow!)

what you need
1 cup heavy cream
5 T unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/4 light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
fleur de sel or other toppings


what you do
Line a small baking sheet or 8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper and lightly oil it. 

Bring the cream and butter to a boil in a small saucepan and set aside. 

Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a heavy saucepan. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Then boil without stirring (you can gently swirl the pan) until the mixture is light golden caramel colored.

Carefully stir in cream mixture (this will bubble up) and simmer, stirring, until the caramel reaches 248 degrees on a candy thermometer (10-15 min.)

Pour onto the parchment and sprinkle with the fleur de sel (or any other toppings you choose).

Let it cool for two hours and then cut into pieces and wrap in candy wrappers (or parchment or wax paper). 

Eat within a few day (which is not hard). 



Do you make homemade candy? What are some of your favorites?

1 comment:

  1. This sounds divine! LOVE the Faraway Tree series :)

    ReplyDelete

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