Salt Water Toffee (Vanilla Orange Cream)

One of my favourite candies is salt water toffee. The flavours that some companies come up with are pretty crazy, but my favourites are orange and vanilla. So smooth and chewy, and they really satisfy a sweet tooth. These candies remind me of my childhood, and oddly enough, many trips to Canada’s Wonderland. At Christmas time last year, I received a Canadian Living Holiday magazine, and so many of the recipes just jumped right out at me! {The recipe I posted for sponge toffee is actually from that magazine too!} The one item that made me stall on doing this recipe for so long was the edible glycerine. I was a bit iffy when finding this stuff, but did a bit of research and learned that there is an edible type {that can be found in baking sections of some stores}, and a NON edible type that is found at the drug store. So now, I will share the simple recipe for salt water toffee! This is definitely something that I will be making again, and again… And again… Mmmmmmm… Enjoy!  

This recipe is from the Canadian Living Holiday Cookbook: Fall 2009, and you can view it on their website by clicking here. 

This recipe makes about 30-35 pieces. (The original recipe makes about 76 pieces, but I cut in half… That’s a LOT of toffee…) 

Salt Water Toffee (Vanilla Orange Cream) 

Ingredients: 

162.5 mL granulated sugar
75 mL white corn syrup
62.5 mL water
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp EDIBLE glycerin {do NOT purchase this from a drug store, as it is not the edible grade of glycerin. You need to go to a store that has baking/cooking items. Michael’s may carry this, and Bulk Barn does carry this. You will find it in the section with all of the flavour extracts/food colouring.}
3/4 tsp salt {sea salt is called for in the original recipe, however I used regular salt and ended up with amazing results}
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/8 tsp (“dash”) of “essential oil flavouring” {I used about 1 mL of vanilla extract, and 1 mL of orange essential oil flavouring, and my toffee came out with such a great flavour!}
Paste food colouring {I used peach colour, just a bit on the end of a stir stick, and it gave me a nice creamy colour}
Icing sugar for rolling/stretching

Method: 

Lightly grease a rimmed non-stick baking sheet. {Pam, or any other cooking spray, works well. You can use butter if you don’t have spray.}
In a deep pot/saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, corn syrup, water, cornstarch, glycerin and salt. Stir until you’ve brought everything to a boil.
Attach a candy thermometer to your pot.
Continue to cook without stirring until the temperature reaches 260 F (126 C) “hard ball stage”. {You can also test this without a candy thermometer by dropping some of the syrup in cold water, and it will form a “hard ball”. This will take about 8 minutes for the mixture to reach this stage. I do strongly suggest, however, that you purchase a candy thermometer to get the best results. It’s $5 WELL spent!}
Remove the pan from heat IMMEDIATELY when it reaches the desired temperature, and stir in your flavour and colour until combined.
Pour the mixture into the prepared baking sheet, but don’t scrape the mixture off of the bottom of the pan.
Allow to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes. It is ready to “pull” once you can press your finger into the mixture and it leaves an impression.
Use your spatula/spoon to fold the edges of the mixture over the middle, and continue to do this until it is cool enough to use your hands. For me, this only took another 2 minutes.
Lightly grease your hands with butter, and grab all of the toffee. Pull it, twist it, and mush it together! It may stick to your fingers, so just add a little more butter onto your hands if this happens.
Keep pulling the toffee until it’s no longer glossy. It will also get much harder to pull and twist, and will become less sticky. This pulling and twisting process takes about 10-15 minutes.
Dust the counter/cutting board with icing sugar, and pull your toffee into a long rope, no thicker than 2 cm. Grease your scissors (or knife) and cut the rope into the desired sized pieces.
Cut some waxed paper into rectangles, and wrap each piece of toffee with the ends of the paper twisted.
These can be stored for about 2 weeks at room temperature, in an open container or box.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: desserts, Recipes Tagged: canadian living, candy, culinary, dessert, Holiday, orange, recipe, salt water taffee, Sweet, vanilla