Adventures in Baking

Toffee Trophy

What is THIS a picture of, you say?  Toffee?   Nope.  It is a trophy!  Well.... it is toffee AND a trophy.  You see, Duncan informed me today that he had committed me to making some sugary treat (caramel? toffee?) for the school bake sale.  OK.  .... I prefer to be given a bit more advance notice, but there you go.... it was still do-able. So on the way home from walking the dog, we stopped at Waitrose grocery store to pick up the basics: butter, cream, sugar, corn syrup.  The rest of the night basically involved hanging out in the kitchen waiting for the thermometer to mount up towards 'hard ball' or 'soft crack'. 


showing off the 4th to fall



Of course, i ended up trying to clean the kitchen at the same time.  Given my distraction, the sugar mixture went much closer to 'hard crack'.  It is still tasty, but with a bit more crunch than usual (approaching peanut brittle).  Still, Duncan proclaimed it a success (and ran off to the other room to watch Harry Potter with a plate of toffee. 

 He returned 15 minutes later in outrage, telling me that if I thought I was going to sell this stuff, I would going to have to also put up a sign warning potential customers that the toffee had the power to pull out your teeth.  With a flourish, he placed the trophy (a baby molar) in my hand.   Duncan declares that the tooth that was yanked out by the toffee was NOT the tooth that was wiggly, but the one beside it.  What ever the case may be, I think that brings the total up to 4 lost teeth in just about as many weeks. 

Yep.... adventures in baking.  Another trophy for my cabinet!