Christmas Candy

Over the past few years, it has become tradition for my wife and I to bake cookies and make candy for Christmas. We tend to make three types of cookies, plus toffee and send it off to the various members of our families. The cookies vary, but the toffee tends to remain the same. My family in particular is fond of it, and I enjoy making it. It's very science-y.



The mise en place. This candy is awesome, because it's really just a few simple things converted by science into pure deliciousness. It's basically just a cup of sugar and a cup of butter, with a little water and corn syrup added to prevent bad crystalization. The almonds will come in at the end.

Note that we've gone with the double Skinny Elvis/Fat Elvis CD here, but you could probably get by with one of the single albums without loosing too much flavor.


Here the butter has just melted. Not much is going on yet, and at this point it seems that the ingredients are not going to come together. The sugar lies lifeless on the bottom, while the melted butter hangs out. This is soon to change though.


The candy has started to boil and has combined. It's still very light in color, and smells very much like sweetened melted butter.

This is the begining of the confectionary magma stage, so watch those splashes.


As the candy cooks it darkens and begins to smell more and more of caramel.


And here it is just before it hits it's temperature. You have to work pretty quickly at this point. Since the temperature determines the hardness of the candy you don't want to overshoot, and you need to stir pretty much constantly to avoid scorching the sugar.


Once you hit temperature, you pour the molten candy over half of the toasted almonds, which have been coarsely chopped. It's pretty hard to get it to spread evenly, but I've found that not pouring it all in the center helps. I sort of pour in an S curve around the pan, going back to spots that aren't getting filled by the spreading candy.

Note that the candy cooking pot cleans much easier if you fill it with boiling water. I usually do it at this point, but it can actually happen at any point. The hardened mess will disolve pretty easily.


What kind of candy doesn't have any chocolate? Not this kind, that's for sure. Once the candy has set, but not cooled all the way, you sprinkle chocolate chips on the surface and let the residual heat melt them.

Once that is spread, you sprinkle with some remaining almonds which have been finely chopped. I used the food processor for almond chopping for the first time this year, and while it was easier, my topping was practically ground. I'll need to practice a bit more with that, I think.


The finished product. Once it has chilled to solidify, you break it into pieces and enjoy the result. It has a rich, toffee flavor with a lot of toasted nuttiness. Since the breaking up of the candy happens on a second day (or much later on the same day) I completely neglected to get photos of the pieces of candy. Still, it basically looks like this only with jagged edges. Also, the only folks who actually read this have seen it in person, so...yeah.

Hope you all had a good christmas, and have a great new year.