Sunday, January 29, 2012

Poor Man's Toffee

I've also seen this called Chocolate Caramel Crackers. There's both a fasting and non-fasting version. The non-fasting one is the tastiest, of course (and what I brought for trapeza today), but the fasting one is incredibly good too! (I've brought that in the past.)

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Poor Man’s Toffee

makes roughly 100 pieces

1 1/4 cups butter, divided
around 40 saltine-style crackers (or graham crackers)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cups finely chopped nuts (optional)

You'll want to have all the ingredients ready ahead of time--once it starts boiling, everything happens quickly!

Preheat oven to 375.
Melt 1/4 cup butter; pour into foil-lined jelly roll pan.
Arrange crackers over butter, edge to edge (cover the entire pan).
Melt remaining butter; add sugar and boil 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally (the longer it boils, the chewier the toffee will be).
Remove from heat and stir in condensed milk. Pour over crackers and spread as evenly as possible.
Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes, until bubbly and slightly darkened.
Remove from oven, cool 1 minute, and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Let stand 5 minutes (until chocolate is soft and melty) and spread.
Sprinkle with nuts; press lightly into chocolate.
Cool; refrigerate until chocolate is set.
Remove foil and cut candy.

To make fasting--use margarine instead of butter and omit the sweetened condensed milk. Spread the caramel mixture over the crackers quickly; it will start setting as soon as it's poured.

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(My "personal" version is kind of a combination of an old family recipe, and these two blog posts at Smitten Kitchen and Life in a Shoe)