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Bob (this one)
 
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JeanineAlyse in 29 Palms wrote:

> Please, one of you candy makers rescue me for a next make? Tonight I
> made the same exact "family" English toffee I'd at least twenty times
> before, though not in several years now. It's my great grandmother's
> very simple recipe, and I followed it to the letter:
>
> Heat 2 cups butter
> 1-1/2 cups sugar
> 1 cup water
> 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
> Heat on low flame, stirring to a boil; stop stirring until 236 degrees;
> stir constant until 290 degrees; remove from stove to quickly whip in
> 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, then pour out onto greased cookie sheet;
> sprinkle 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips over, spread when melted, then
> gently press chopped nuts onto melted chocolate; cool before breaking
> into pieces.
>
> Tonight the toffee was made exactly that way, with those exact
> ingredients and temperatures, yet it did not come out as "snappy" as
> always before. It did break as normal, but the toffee consistency is
> the stick to your teeth sort instead of crumbly. What could be wrong or
> changed to be sure of snappy once again?


Several possibilities:
1) thermometer not accurate.
2) very humid
3) very dry
4) mismeasurement
5) different chocolate chips than in the past
6) baking soda weak
7) baking powder instead

There are too many variables to pinpoint one in particular, but these
are what I'd look at.

Pastorio