Salty Cracker Toffee

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1 c. Salted butter, room temperature
1 c. Dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp Vanilla extract
16 Salted-top soda crackers
~ 1.5 c. Hershey's special dark chocolate chips
A few pinches of sea salt (not iodized table salt) or colour sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Line the bottom of a 9x9" square silicone baking pan with soda crackers.  (If you are not using silicone bakeware, line the baking pan with tinfoil and spray with cooking spray before placing the crackers.)

(This next step is important to avoid the butter from separating from the toffee, forming an ugly layer of fat on your toffee and chocolate.)
Melt the butter and sugar together in a sauce pan on low-medium heat, stirring slowly.  When the butter and sugar are melted and mixed well, increase the heat to medium-high.  Once the toffee starts to boil, stop stirring.  Bring the toffee to an angry boil and boil for 3 minutes without stirring.  The toffee should be a dark golden brown colour.

Remove from heat.  Carefully add the vanilla (a few drops at a time).  Swirl to mix, but do not stir.  The vanilla will splash when you add it to the toffee.  (I suggest using an oven mitt to hold the sauce pan to avoid getting hot caramel splatter onto your hand.)

Pour the toffee over the soda crackers.  (The toffee should have a thick consistency.)  Bake for 4-5 min.

Sprinkle the dark chocolate chips on top and wait for a few minutes for the chocolate chips to melt.  Spread the melted chocolate evenly on top.

Place the candy in the refrigerator for about 20 min.  Decorate with colour sprinkles or add a little bit of sea salt.  Return the candy to the refrigerator for 2 hours and allow the toffee to harden.

Cut into triangles.  Store in air-tight container in the refrigerator.  If stacking the toffee in layers, separate each layer with wax paper.

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My comments:

I came across this recipe about a month ago and I've already made it 3 times.  It is That Good!  So stop reading this post and go make it now!!

Ok...so you chose to keep reading (hopefully with toffee in your hand) and as your reward, you get to read about why I love these candies so much.

First of all, every candy recipe I came across so far required a candy thermometer.  I don't own one and I don't want to buy one.  So I was very happy to discover that you can make beautiful candies without it.  However, each batch of toffee I made were slightly different and I suspect that a candy thermometer will give me a better control over the cooking time and thus minimizing the variations between batches.  The different batches varies in the chewy-ness of the toffee, so if you don't care about that (which I don't), then you don't need a candy thermometer.

I chose to use dark chocolate chips because I Love Dark Chocolates.  It's my favourite!!  And these dark chocolate chips paired beautifully with the toffee.  I used approximately 1.5 cups of chocolate chips but you can use more if you like your toffee more chocolatey.  My suggestion is not to skim on the chocolate because it does make it a little hard to spread once it's melted.  What to do with the leftover chocolate chips?  Eat them!!  I usually go through a whole bag of them while making these toffee.  Yum!!

I made these for the Christmas cookie exchange with my friends this year.  Instead of adding sea salt (see original recipe on notes on sea salts), I decorated the toffee with red and green sprinkles.  It was awesomely festive!!
'Tis the season to eat toffee.  Fa-la-la-la-la La-la-la-la!

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