Toffee

My Aunt Velma used to send us toffee every Christmas, this is her recipe:

3/4 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 pound salted butter
1 3/4 cups whole almonds
Chocolate
Chopped nuts

In a heavy pot attach your candy thermometer and butter the sides. Add the water and sugar on medium heat. Mix occasionally until dissolved (if you start boiling before the sugar dissolves the toffee will be grainy).

Increase temp and add butter. Boil until light brown (10 mins). You will want to stir to make sure the bottom doesn't burn, but you don't want to continually stir. I've noticed that it takes a while for the color to change but once it does it changes fast, so keep an eye on it.

Increase the temp and add almonds. As you boil it will change to a caramel color, you want to make sure it reaches 300-305 degrees (that is the hard crack stage). If you let it go over then it will burn.

Pour toffee onto a buttered cookie sheet to let cool. After about 2-5 mins I wipe off the excess butter and then put my chocolate on to melt (it's still hot enough that it will melt your chocolate for you). You can use a chocolate bar or even chocolate chips. Then you can toss on chopped up almonds or pecans.

To take the toffee off the pan I just pop it off the cookie sheet like you do with an ice tray. Then make sure to keep it in an air tight container. This recipe makes 2lbs (large batch).