Crisp, rich butter toffee loaded with crunchy almonds, topped with creamy milk chocolate and more chopped almonds.
This isn’t just any butter toffee recipe, it’s Chocolot’s butter toffee recipe. Chocolot is an award winning Utah Chocolatier. Ruth Kendrick started Chocolot in 2008, but she’s been making candy for over 50 years. She learned the art of candymaking from her mother, Pauline H. Atkinson, and they co-authored the book Candymaking. Ruth’s taught classes in candymaking throughout the country.
Ruth emailed me when I posted my Black Licorice Caramels recipe. She said she’s a long time Barbara Bakes reader and gave me advice on the temperature she cooks the caramels at our high altitude.
We emailed back and forth a little bit, and I asked about attending the next class she was teaching. She said she didn’t have any classes for several months, and instead invited me come to her home for a private lesson!
So on a Tuesday afternoon earlier this month, I went to Ruth’s home and she shared some of her chocolate making secrets with me. My first lesson was chocolate tempering and the importance of tempering the chocolate so it’s glossy and has a snap to it.
For tempering Chocolot chocolates, Ruth uses a special cocoa butter kept in a special container at just the right temperature. But for the rest of us, she emailed me the chocolate tempering information sheet she gives out at her classes. Luckily, she said I could also share it with my readers. Here’s a link to the pdf: Tempering Chocolate by Ruth Kendrick
Ruth’s Chocolot chocolates are amazing. The rich, creamy chocolate outside is the perfect vehicle for delivering the fabulous flavors and textures in the middle of the chocolate. The yellow triangle shaped confection in the picture above is Meyer Lemon, and it was my favorite of the Chocolots she sent home with me. It was smooth and creamy, a little bit tart and heavenly.
In addition to the fabulous flavors, Chocolot chocolates are beautiful works of art. Some are air brushed with beautiful colors, others have elegant shapes or patterns on top. Unfortunately, the chocolates aren’t widely available. Occasionally, you’ll find them in local shops, but fortunately, you can order them online.
After Ruth taught me about tempering chocolate, she decided to help me overcome my fear or burning myself making candy by showing me just how easy it is to make butter toffee. It was fun to watch how quickly she could whip up a batch of toffee.
If you have easy melting callets like Ruth uses at home and in her shop, you can just add them on top of the hot toffee and wait for them to melt and cool to about 90 degrees, then spread the chocolate over the butter toffee.
In addition to showing me how to make this fabulous toffee, Ruth also taught me how to make Peanut Butter Gianduja Chocolates. They’re a super easy-to-make chocolate that uses only three simple ingredients. I’ll share the Peanut Butter Gianduja recipe next Monday, so be sure and stop back by.
Chocolot Butter Toffee
Ingredients
- 1 pound 2 cups - 4 sticks AA grade sweet cream unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt omit if using salted butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups chopped toasted almonds
- ½ cup tempered chocolate
Instructions
- Line a 12x18 baking sheet with parchment. Place toasted almonds on the baking sheet.
- In a heavy pot, combine butter, water and salt (if using unsalted butter). Heat over medium heat until butter is melted. Add sugar and stir constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture comes to a boil.
- Cook to about 300° stirring slowly and gently.
- Pour into prepared pan and let candy stand at room temperature to cool. Dip or spread chocolate on top and bottom of toffee. Sprinkle with nuts if desired.
Notes
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Emily
i’ve made this recipe many times and it always turns out great. i’ve even used different things on top, like m&m’s. it’s always requested, my friends and family love it!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks for sharing Emily! I love the idea to change it up with different toppings.
Nagi@RecipeTinEats
Barbara, these are just perfect! It sounds really do-able. Wish me luck that I can really make these adorable Chocolate Butter Toffees! YUM!
Berny
Help. I tried the recipe for Chocolot Butter Toffee. I had a difficult time getting the temperature up to 300, so I turned up the heat Io med-hi, cause it seemed stuck on 250. I double checked that the toffee was hard crack stage using the cold water method to ensure it was ok & not thermometer at fault. Anyway when I poured it our on to roasted almonds the toffee separated and became greasy. Why? It was awful & not at a good hard crack like brittles usually are.
What could I do to ensure that it doesn’t separate?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Berny – sorry you had trouble. I’ve had it separate before when I used unsalted butter and didn’t add the salt. I also understand it can separate because of over stirring.
Berny
Thanks for the tip – I’ll try again.
Berny
Kristen
This recipe looks so good and actually really do-able! Thanks for sharing!
amanda
Love this!!!