Christmas Toffee
Time flies and today it’s already second Advent, thus 2 candles of 4 should be lit. I finally managed to find the Advent candlestick but I had to put it away during the week as we had a photographer here to take photos of our home for our appartment ad. And now, of course, I can’t find it again. But at least the appartment is really neat and clean :-)
It’s only 20 days left to Christmas Eve and in Sweden it is very common to make toffee before Christmas. I never did that when I was a child, we didn’t have that tradition in my Polish family. But we did toffee at school and I recall that everything got really sticky. Anyway, yesterday I did Chocolate toffee and Lemon toffee, which both turned out really delicous. I found the recipes at a forum that I read regularly, but they can be found anywhere on the internet or in Swedish cookbooks.
- Lemon Toffee
(makes about 70 toffees)
300 ml double/whipping cream
200 ml golden syrup
300 ml caster sugar
2 tbsp butter
juice and zest from 1 lemon
about 70 small toffee paper forms
Put the toffee forms on a tray.
Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan. Stir occasionally and boil without lid for 15-60 minutes, until the toffee batter is 122-125 ° C. If you don’t have a thermometer you can do a ball test: at that temperature a drop of the batter should solidify in water and be possible to be rolled into a little ball.
Pour the toffee carefully into each paper form. Repeat with all toffee batter. Store the toffee in a tin with greaseproof paper between each layer.
Chocolate Toffee
(makes about 30 toffees)
100 ml golden syrup
200 ml caster sugar
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp cocoa
about 30 small toffee paper forms
Put the toffee forms on a tray.
Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan. Stir occasionally and boil without lid for 15-60 minutes, until the toffee batter is 122-125 ° C. If you don’t have a thermometer you can do a ball test: at that temperature a drop of the batter should solidify in water and be possible to be rolled into a little ball.
Pour the toffee carefully into each paper form. Repeat with all toffee batter. Store the toffee in a tin with greaseproof paper between each layer.
December 4th, 2005 20:15
What a subtle ‘second Sunday in advent’ image … lovely, just lovely. I was lucky to spend St Lucia with a family in Stockholm many years ago, the candles and morning buns and all, yes?
December 5th, 2005 16:19
Those little cups look so sweet!
December 5th, 2005 22:36
Alanna,
Thank you. Lucia is great, it’s really cosy with the white dressed girls singing and the candles. And not to forget: the Saffron buns!
Sarah Lou,
The cups are tiny and cute, but it’s rather tricky to fill them with toffee batter :-)
December 14th, 2005 15:56
how long can you keep the toffees? or how many days in advance can you prepare them?
December 17th, 2005 20:06
Holly,
If I had to guess I would say a month. The ones I made are still fine. Just keep them in the fridge.