Forum Activity for @Matt Erickson

Toffee troubles

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Mark;

Thank you so much for taking your time to be so thorough in your answer. I will try and digest everthing you said and modify my technique accordingly.

Matt

Toffee troubles

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Do I need to always cook to "at least 310 degrees", or only if I add water if things begin to separate?

The batches tried yesterday still tended to have that terrible "fudge like texture", unless they burned, being darker and stickier. Since you're sayingadding water can increase the chance of burning due to longer cook times, is there anything else I should try first?

What do you mean "doctor solids"?

Are you saying that above 255 degrees (if the syrup is properly "supersaturated") and if at a low enough temperature, I needn't stir the mixture at all?

As I seem to continue to have problems, I could only come up with 3 possible things which I didn't know how much they did or didn't affect things.

1. I use unsalted butter--does this make much difference (realizing that salt lowers the boiling temperature of water)?

2. I am placing the toffee into a sheet metal pan to cool on top of the wooden table (I don't have room for our marble slab at present)--I didn't know if perhaps not cooling quickly enough created additional problems?

3. Humidity seems to affect the outcome--I didn't know the significance of this, nor any adequate work-arounds.

Ruth stated that she brought the water and butter to a boil and then began to stir in the sugar. If that is the case, can the sugar be "completely dissolved in the solution" before boiling?

I know I'm having quite the fits with toffee and your help (as also Ruth's) is greatly appreciated.

Matt

Toffee troubles

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Ok (equal parts butter and sugar). Thank you very much.

Matt

Toffee troubles

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Ruth;

Thank you extremely much! I will try it (and I'll take the "luck") :-)

Matt

Toffee troubles

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

I'm having trouble with my Toffee recipe (which is as follows);

1 # butter

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

bring to boil, then turn down heat tomedium-high until starts to thicken, then turn on low heat until mixture reaches 295 degrees F., then pour in pan to cool.

Half of the time, the toffee turns out well. The other half, the toffee turns dark and tends to separate, and the toffee turns cake-like.

I've tried a suggested "fix", which was to take off the heat and add 1/2 cup of hot water in the final minutes and stir well, but it didn't help (well, it stopped the mixture from separating, and the mixture didn't turn cake-like, but it didn't set up.

I don't have the background knowledge or experience to know why sometimes the toffee turns out great, and sometimes it fails. My best guess is maybe humidity changes are making a difference, but I don't know. I've tried different pans, different stoves, adding a little bit of corn syrup, etc.

Any suggestions?

Matt Erickson

(360) 601-7235

updated by @Matt Erickson: 04/13/15 12:12:40