Sunday, May 2, 2010

Salted Toffee Chocolate Squares



These quick little babies are a cross between cookie and candy, and are a close cousin to the cookie brittle I made over the holidays. Both of them involve taking a layer of crackers, laying them out in a single layer on a cookie sheets, spreading them with a variety of sweet and sinful stuff, baking them, and standing back, because there is an immediate stampede to the kitchen.

Now, my single best piece of advice on both of these recipes is this: Reynolds Non-Stick Foil. That stuff has changed my life, sticky-cooking-stuff-wise, almost as much as my Silpats have. Layer your baking pan with a sheet of that stuff and your sticking worries are over forever.

Once you have your foil down, put a single layer of graham crackers down. Sprinkle them with toffee bits (you can find these in your supermarket next to the chocolate chips, usually the Heath brand), and then with the chopped nuts of your choice. I like chopped almonds for this one but that's just me -- go for whatever you like. I'm going to try macadamia nuts next. Don't worry if some of the nuts and toffee fall off to the sides -- this is all going to melt into a glorious mess anyway.

Next you make a super-simple syrup of melted butter and sugar and pour it over the graham crackers. Pop it into the over until it bubbles, take it out and sprinkle chocolate chips and just a teeny bit of coarse salt on the top. Trust me on the salt thing -- it is what turns this recipe from great to mind-blowing. Let the thing cool until it is just cooled enough to handle but not hardened yet, and then grab your handy pizza cutter and a spatula. It will be a little hard to see the edges of the graham crackers amid all the fabulous topping, but do your best to cut around the edges of each square, and then lift each one out with a spatula and put it on a cooling rack.

Here is the most important step. Try one when they are still warm, and then try another when they are cooled. It's important for the serious cook to be able to form an opinion about which is better. I am still testing them, myself, just to be totally sure.



Salted Toffee Chocolate Squares, adapted from Everyday Food

12 graham crackers broken into squares
1 8 oz bag toffee pieces (found in the baking aisle)
1 1/2 cups roasted, salted almonds, roughly chopped
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 tsp sea salt

Set the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with non-stick foil.

Lay the graham crackers on the baking sheet, touching each other. Sprinkle the toffee pieces and the chopped almonds evenly over the crackers. Set aside.

Combine the sugar and butter in a small saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer for a few minutes, until the mixture has the consistency of a syrup. Remove from heat and pour over the graham crackers, trying to soak all of them.

Bake for about 12 minutes until the top is bubbly. Remove and immediately sprinkle with the chocolate chips and sea salt. Let cool for about 10 minutes, and then use a pizza cutter to cut into 2 inch squares. Transfer the squares to a cooling rack.

kittens are sweet (when they're not biting you).

kittens are sweet (when they're not biting you).

The Power of Positive Thinking, Edwardian-Style

Some folks these days may believe that the benefits of positive thinking originated with "The Secret." But a little art nouveau-styled chapbook uncovered at the Pottery City Antique Mall this weekend-- dating back to 1907-- proves that we have been reminding ourselves to put a sunny spin on life for years and years now.

Today, I thought I'd share with you just a bit of their upbeat wisdom!

Personally, I think it would be impossible to remain in a rotten mood just cracking open a book so lushly and colorfully illustrated as "Good Cheer," published by the Berger Publishing Company of Buffalo, NY...
They don't make 'em like that anymore! All the beauty of early 1900s postcards seems to be layered into this little booklet. We begin, greeted with roses and Ruskin...

Happiness is everywhere
and its
spring is in
our own heart.
Ruskin.

Turning the next page we get snippets from a number of well-known writers, all on the idea of keeping a positive perspective on the daily trials we face...

The day returns and brings us the petty rounds of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces; let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonored, and grant us in the end, the gift of sleep.
Robert Louis Stevenson.

Life is a mirror; if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.
Thackeray.

The habit of viewing things cheerfully, and thinking about life hopefully, may be made to grow up in us like any other habit.
Smiles.


On Mondays, I may have to pop back here myself and, um, remind me of these things.

Here, we are treated to some rather magical blue wildflowers...
The page reads:

Cheerfulness
is like money
well expended in
charity-- the more we
dispense of it, the
greater our possessions.
Victor Hugo

In life
there is
but one sure
happiness--
to live for others.
Leo Tolstoi.

Not that I previously viewed Tolstoi as a particularly perky guy-- but hey, we all have layers, I suppose. Some of the wisdom is shared in violets and verse...
Oh, heart of mine, we shouldn't
Worry so!
What we've missed of calm
We couldn't have, you know!
What we've met of stormy pain,
And of sorrow's driving rani
We can better meet again,
If it blow!
James Whitcomb Riley
Some of it in spreads of fiction and rural landscape...

But most of it is picked from fresh cheerful bouquets of reminder...
A
sunny
temper
gilds the
edge of
life's blackest
cloud.
Guthrie.

Here's wishing you the joys of the week ahead, and the patience to find their hiding place if they get shy about in stepping into the light.

The Power of Positive Thinking, Edwardian-Style

Some folks these days may believe that the benefits of positive thinking originated with "The Secret." But a little art nouveau-styled chapbook uncovered at the Pottery City Antique Mall this weekend-- dating back to 1907-- proves that we have been reminding ourselves to put a sunny spin on life for years and years now.

Today, I thought I'd share with you just a bit of their upbeat wisdom!

Personally, I think it would be impossible to remain in a rotten mood just cracking open a book so lushly and colorfully illustrated as "Good Cheer," published by the Berger Publishing Company of Buffalo, NY...
They don't make 'em like that anymore! All the beauty of early 1900s postcards seems to be layered into this little booklet. We begin, greeted with roses and Ruskin...

Happiness is everywhere
and its
spring is in
our own heart.
Ruskin.

Turning the next page we get snippets from a number of well-known writers, all on the idea of keeping a positive perspective on the daily trials we face...

The day returns and brings us the petty rounds of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces; let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonored, and grant us in the end, the gift of sleep.
Robert Louis Stevenson.

Life is a mirror; if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.
Thackeray.

The habit of viewing things cheerfully, and thinking about life hopefully, may be made to grow up in us like any other habit.
Smiles.


On Mondays, I may have to pop back here myself and, um, remind me of these things.

Here, we are treated to some rather magical blue wildflowers...
The page reads:

Cheerfulness
is like money
well expended in
charity-- the more we
dispense of it, the
greater our possessions.
Victor Hugo

In life
there is
but one sure
happiness--
to live for others.
Leo Tolstoi.

Not that I previously viewed Tolstoi as a particularly perky guy-- but hey, we all have layers, I suppose. Some of the wisdom is shared in violets and verse...
Oh, heart of mine, we shouldn't
Worry so!
What we've missed of calm
We couldn't have, you know!
What we've met of stormy pain,
And of sorrow's driving rani
We can better meet again,
If it blow!
James Whitcomb Riley
Some of it in spreads of fiction and rural landscape...

But most of it is picked from fresh cheerful bouquets of reminder...
A
sunny
temper
gilds the
edge of
life's blackest
cloud.
Guthrie.

Here's wishing you the joys of the week ahead, and the patience to find their hiding place if they get shy about in stepping into the light.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

I'll Tumble For Ya

Okay, so I've given into the evil that is Tumblr and signed up. I figure I can post all the inspiration photo I collect but then don't know what to do with there. So check it out!