Toffee Bark with Salted Pecans

I always find it amusing when something from my mom’s kitchen shows up in the New York Times. Food has become a hobby for people in a way it just wasn’t the many decades ago when my childhood was happening. That isn’t a comment on our current food culture, necessarily, it’s more that I’m not sure what to do when a major newspaper has published a version of the candy my mom allowed me to make after I had mastered peanut butter cookies.

And make it, I did. Every chance I had. It was generally considered a Christmas candy in our house but if my mom would let me make it in the middle of summer, it was one of my favorite things to do and eat. There are few legal things I’ve found as addicting as this specific combination of salt, fat and sugar. Mainly because it hits the part of our lizard brain that says “Eat more of this, it will help you survive.” Nowadays I’m not so confident we’ll survive as long if we keep eating more of it, given our propensity for sitting down, but it is still powerful stuff.

All that being said, if you are a candy purist, move along. This is not the recipe for you. It is a fast and loose preparation that is not supposed to be a sophisticated, creamy, perfectly balanced toffee. You might get that but it will be grainy more often than not. It burns unless you watch it. You’ll be lucky if you can get two batches to turn out exactly the same way. For me, that isn’t a problem. In fact, it is the essence of what I think it means to be in the kitchen day in and day out. You make the food, you do your best, sometimes it’s sublime, sometimes it’s meh. Sometimes, although less and less the more you do it, it goes in the garbage. That’s life.

One of the things that DOES worry me about the media culture we’re living in is that we run the risk of divorcing the real process of actually making food in lieu of spending a lot of time watching other people making food. You can watch someone make these or you can give it a go. It won’t be perfect probably. And it absolutely won’t matter because your brain is still going to light up in all the right ways, convincing you that toffee bark will help you survive.

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30 minutes plus a couple of hours to cool and set

Ingredients

A neutral cracker of some kind. In America that means Saltines, in the UK your best bet is probably square cream crackers. There is also a version using Matzo. Your choice, they will all work.

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar

12oz/340g of milk or dark chocolate chips

100g roasted, salted pecans (the salted bit is important)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 225C. Yes, that’s a hot oven which is why from this point forward there’s no walking away until everything is together.

Line a 24/34cm baking tray (make sure it has a raised edge) with aluminium foil. Grease the foil with butter. Cover the bottom of the tray in one layer of your chosen CRACKERS.

Set a timer for three minutes. In a heavy bottomed pan (if you have one) melt the BUTTER and add the SUGAR over a medium heat. Start stirring, ideally with a spatula but a spoon is fine. Bring it to a boil and then boil for 3 minutes. Start your timer and keep stirring. Even though I said it won’t turn out perfectly you don’t want to ruin it because you stopped stirring.

When the timer goes off, pour the toffee over the crackers in the pan and spread it out gently with the back of your spoon. Do not get any on your hands. It will burn like a mother and it’s sticky. Also don’t be tempted to lick your spoon. It’s hot and you will regret it.

Put the pan in the oven but don’t walk away. Set your timer for 5 minutes and keep watch. It will bubble all over and eventually it will froth a bit. If it starts to smoke, take it out, even if the 5 minutes aren’t up.

Take it out of the oven and sprinkle the CHOCOLATE CHIPS over the top. Leave it until they are melted and then spread the chocolate over the toffee.

Chop your ROASTED, SALTED PECANS and sprinkle them over the chocolate. Let the whole thing cool. If you’re in a hurry you can put it in the fridge. A thought on the topping – if you don’t like pecans, no worries. Try another nut or some dried fruit or candy. The only limit is your imagination.

This is a photo of my mom’s original recipe card (she uses walnuts): Handwritten recipe card for toffee bark