St. Patrick's Day Toffee

I love every kind of holiday or occasion because it gives me a reason to bake and create.  So with St. Patrick's day approaching I've been thinking up some Irish/Green goodies.  I am not Irish and not familiar with Irish cooking, but I'm always willing to learn.  I have a bunch of ideas for the next week.  The first one was for a toffee.  I was inspired when grocery shopping this morning and found these coconut M&M packets that had green colored candy.  I picked up some green melting candies and a shamrock mix sprinkles and got started.


Ingredients
2 cups chopped pecans
1 cup sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter
5 Tblsp water
5 oz green melting candies and 5 oz milk chocolate baking bits
Shamrock sprinkles and green coconut M and M's

Toast the pecans in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes until fragrant, toss 1/2 way through once

Measure out 5 oz of green melting candies

 Measure out 5 oz milk chocolate baking bits

Spread 1/2 of the pecans in a 9 X13 sheet pan lined with parchment paper, leaving a little room on edges, save the other half of pecans for sprinkling on the chocolate

Add the sugar, butter and water in a heavy duty pot and heat on medium, stir to melt

Attach a candy thermometer on side of pan and keep heating and stirring until you get to 285 degrees

This is what it will look like when ready

Pour evenly over pecans

Sprinkle chocolate bits over hot toffee, let sit for 2 minutes

While thats sitting melt the candy in the microwave, following directions on bag

Spread the now melting chocolate with an offset spatula

Spoon melted green candy onto chocolate

Swirl the 2 with an offset spatuala

Sprinkle with remaining nuts, sprinkles and M and M's, pressing lightly.  Let completely set, then break up into pieces.

This turned out to be quite a tasty toffee :)

Enjoy and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Pecan Treats from the Gourmet Cookie Book

   

Did you know that I liked pecans?  Well I do a lot.   I like them in chocolates, in coffee cakes, in pralines, in pies, in apple desserts, in cheesecakes, in icecream, in bars, in cookies . . . . ok, you get the point :)

When I first got my hands on this cookbook "The Gourmet Cookie Book - The single best recipe from each year 1941-2009", I scoured the pages and flagged about 20 recipes, including: chocolate coconut squares, pecan tassies, mocha toffee bars, strawberry tart cookies, cranberry turtle bars, dutch caramel cashew cookies, 
greek butter cookies, linzer bars, and mini black and white cookies just to name a few - there are so many good ones! Guess what I found from the year 1981?  Cloudt's Pecan Treats!!  They looked like pecan pie bars but are more like a candy, the author describes them this way:  "The enormously rich and nutty squares will remind you of a French nut tart, but they require a fraction of the effort." Needless to say this was the first recipe I tried from this delicious book!  

Recipe
Shortbread crust
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 large egg plus 2 Tblsp lightly beaten egg
2 3/4 cups flour
Pecan mixture
1 1/3 cups packed light brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup lyles golden syrup
1/4 cup half and half
3/3/4 cups chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 375.  Cream together 1/ 1/2 sticks butter with sugar and salt until light and fluffy in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Add the eggs and blend.  Add the flour and mix just until blended.  Press this mixture evenly into a 15 1/2 by 10 1/2 inch sheet pan.  Bake on the middle rack of oven for 15-20 mins, until golden, let cool.
In a large heavy saucepan, combine brown sugar, remaining butter, syrup, and half and half and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring.  Stir in pecans and let the mixture cool.  Spread this pecan mixture evenly over the shortbread base and bake on middle rack for 15 minutes, or until top is bubbly. Let cool, then cut into 2 inch squares.

Recipe adapted from "The Gourmet Cookie Book"

 

Enjoy!

Book available in My Baking Store:
http://astore.amazon.com/rosscoubak-20/detail/0547328168