Chocolate Nutty Buttercrunch

I think most people don't recognize there is a difference between buttercrunch and toffee. I blame See's. See's Victoria Toffee is actually buttercrunch, at least, according to Chocolates and Confections: Formula, Theory, and Technique for the Artisan Confectioner, which says that toffee has to have milk proteins in it. As a result, "real" toffee sticks to your teeth, which is why I love buttercrunch. It's crunchy, sweet, and rich, but doesn't hurt my old lady sensitive teeth. I started with a recipe from the book, scaled it back a bit, and then added nuts to the buttercrunch portion. The book recipe says to put the nuts on the chocolate, but I thought it would give the nuts a better chance at staying crunchy if they were inside the candy.

Stacey's Chocolate Nutty Buttercrunch Ingredients:

2 sticks (8 oz) salted butter, organic

1c sugar, organic

1.5 oz water

2 tsp vanilla bean paste

~1.5c mix of raw (untoasted) peanuts and pepitos (pumpkin seeds)

Guittard 64% dark chocolate

Guittard 38% milk chocolate

Candy Thermometer

Temperature Gun

Cookie sheet with silicone mat on top

I put the butter, sugar, water and vanilla bean paste into a 4-qt. sauce pan and began heating it over medium flame. Once it started to bubble, I stuck in the candy thermometer (it was probably around 212F) and put the nuts in. This way the nuts get a chance to toast inside the candy.

I stirred gently and constantly until it got to 298F, at which point I poured the candy out onto the silicone mat on the cookie sheet. I let this cool to room temperature.

I tempered the milk chocolate for the first side. It doesn't really matter - you can choose either chocolate to go first. I spread it out with a spatula on the top side. After it set, I peeled the buttercrunch off of the silicone mat, and turned it over. I tempered dark chocolate for the opposite side.

Once the chocolate set, I was able to break it into delicious crunchy pieces.

Take that See's. :)

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