Peanut Chocolate Toffee

Peanut Chocolate Toffee

The transformation of butter, sugar, and salt into toffee is culinary alchemy at its best. This version is studded with cocktail peanuts and a decadent layer of bittersweet chocolate.

Yield: Makes about 3 pounds
Active Time: 45 min
Total Time: 1 3/4 hr

4 sticks (1 pound) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups whole cocktail peanuts plus 1 cup chopped (1 pound 10 ounces)

7 to 8 ounces 70%-cacao bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Equipment: a 15- by 10- by 1-inch baking pan; a candy thermometer; a metal offset spatula

Butter baking pan and put on a heatproof surface.

Bring butter, sugar, and salt to a boil in a 4- to 5-quart heavy pot over medium-high heat, whisking until smooth, then boil, stirring occasionally, until mixture is deep golden and registers 300°F (hard-crack stage; see Kitchen Notebook, page 240) on thermometer, 15 to 20 minutes.

Immediately stir in whole peanuts, then carefully pour hot toffee into center of baking pan. Spread with spatula, smoothing top, and let stand 1 minute, then immediately sprinkle chocolate on top. Let stand until chocolate is melted, 4 to 5 minutes, then spread over toffee with cleaned spatula. Sprinkle evenly with chopped peanuts, then freeze until chocolate is firm, about 30 minutes. Break into pieces.

Cooks' note:
Toffee keeps, layered between sheets of parchment paper, in an airtight container at cool room temperature 2 weeks.

Cooks' note:
Toffee keeps, layered between sheets of parchment paper, in an airtight container at cool room temperature 2 weeks.

RESULTS: Love! I made these for a cookie exchange/charity for the poor grad students in our office to take home. They were pretty excited about it, so I think it turned out ok. I decided to make the toffee because I just don't think I use my candy thermometer enough. With Epicurious, I always check the reviews of other people, and those people had some really good tips for keeping the butter from separating (using salted butter instead of unsalted and leaving out the extra salt, boiling it for longer over lower heat, etc). They also recommended cutting back on the whole peanuts to 2 cups (in addition to the 1 cup of chopped nuts), which I did (I mixed regularly salted cocktail peanuts and lightly salted), and I added vanilla extract, which was delicious. I think you could do 3 cups of whole peanuts, but I don't think I would like 4 cups of whole peanuts, plus the chopped. Too many peanuts. Here's a link to the website so you can check them out for yourself.

A note of warning, there was a LOT of stirring. Also, it's really helpful to have everything chopped that needs to be chopped before the sugar and butter hit the heat. And some toffee-making music, as there was a LOT of stirring. A LOT.

One final tip: The only pan I had that was even close to being as big as this recipe called for was that enchilada pan I got from CVS, but it was still too small and the toffee came out too thick to break into small pieces in some spots. The toffee "batter" had a fairly high vicosity, so I was thinking I might try putting it on a cookie sheet next time, as those are pretty long and wide, even though they don't have edges to keep everything in. I just won't spread to the edges.