Simply Homemade: Butter Toffee

Like most families, candy and cookie making is a part of our Christmas tradition. We have our favorites–you know, the goodies we have to make every year or it’s just not Christmas. We always made extras to give away because sharing food traditions is part of the fun of the season.

Special food gifts are perfect for gift-giving. They don’t have to be complicated to be delightful. In fact, today’s gift idea is one of the easiest, but most spectacular, food gifts I’ve ever made: toffee.

Homemade toffee

Rich, buttery toffee requires only four ingredients (and one of those is optional). You can whip up a batch in about half and hour, but the results are so impressive, it’s hard to imagine that something so decadent could be so easy.

With those credentials, I think it’s safe to say that toffee is the perfect food gift for a simply homemade holiday. Check out the recipe and you’ll see what I mean.

Homemade Butter Toffee

Ingredients

2 cups of high-quality, unsalted butter (4 sticks)

2 cups white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups dark chocolate chips

2 cups chopped, toasted almonds (optional)

Other Stuff You Need

A candy thermometer

Parchment-lined cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. A silicone liner works well in place of parchment if you have one.

How to Make This Yumminess

In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter and sugar together over medium heat. Stir constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved. Don’t rush this step–the sugar has to dissolve or the toffee will turn grainy and soft. You may need to turn down the heat to give the sugar time to melt.

Try not to slosh the sugar mixture around in the pan. You do not want undissolved sugar crystals to get in to the mixture or, you guessed it, bad toffee will result (as if there could be such a thing as bad toffee).

Making toffee

Once the sugar has dissolved, you can turn up the heat to medium-high, stirring almost constantly to keep it from scorching.

The mixture will turn bubbly and darken from a lemony color to a rich, toffee color as it cooks.

The lemony stage

You will notice that I switched from a spatula to a whisk once the mixture started to bubble. Whisking helps to incorporate the butter and the sugar. You do not want the butter floating on the top because that will not make toffee. That will make…something else. Mix it in!

Using a candy thermometer, bring the mixture up to about 298 degrees (it won’t hurt it to go a little over). This is the hard crack stage. Toffee cooked to this stage will have a nice crunch and flake into layers when you bite into it. Yum-o.

It takes a bit to get the toffee to the right temp, so while you’re waiting, you might want to taste the chocolate chips to make sure they are worthy.

As soon as the toffee is up to temperature, immediately pour it out onto the parchment paper. Working very quickly, spread it out as thinly as possible. You will only have a minute or two to make this happen because the toffee cools very quickly. It will begin to resist spreading, and once it does, you’re done.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the entire thing. When they soften, spread the chocolate over the toffee and follow with the nuts, if desired. Gently press the nuts into the mixture so they don’t all fall off as soon as you break the toffee into pieces.

Put the cookie sheet in the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to set. Once the candy is completely cool, break it into pieces and package into pretty little containers for giving!

Pretty bowls make great containers for giving

One batch of toffee makes three nice-sized gifts for teachers, neighbors, coworkers, or friends. Be sure to take some care in packaging because presentation can elevate a simple gift into something truly special!

If you plan to send the toffee in the mail, package it in several air-tight layers (Ziploc baggies inside of other Ziploc baggies inside of a cute little gift bag) so that the toffee arrives as fresh as possible.

Toffee for giving

If you really love someone, you can give them the whole shebang (minus the pieces you “tested,” of course). A lovely glass cracker jar is the perfect container.

As an aside, it’s best not to put these gifts under the tree while they’re waiting to be gifted or you might have to make up another batch. Toffee is hard to resist.

*Option: Salted Toffee

Take the toffee up to the next level of sophistication by making it salted. Oh. my. goodness. To do this, simply omit the salt in the recipe. Then, after you spread the chocolate on the finished toffee, allow it to cool slightly on the counter. Once the chocolate has just begun to set, sprinkle freshly-ground sea salt over the surface. Refrigerate to continue setting the chocolate.

Drool.

Wait! I didn’t get a picture of salted toffee. I guess I’m going to have to go back and make another batch! Oh, the burden.

Tomorrow’s Simply Homemade project involves dirt and a pretty little pot.

Simply Homemade: Christmas Lights Bracelets

My mother is an avid creator. If she is sitting down, she has a project in her hands. There are projects in every room, in fact, and many more waiting in her mind.

Growing up, those projects always found a place under our Christmas tree. I do not remember a single year when I did not receive something she made for me. There were knitted sweaters, rag dolls with soft yarn hair, Barbie clothes, and always, always, a Christmas dress.

One year, she made a giant stuffed Panda bear. It should have been mine, but my mother accidentally packaged it up and sent it to Texas for my cousin.

Because of my mom, and my grandparents before her, I love homemade things. I love giving them and I love getting them. Sadly, I do not have the skill set my mother has. I do not knit or crochet and I’ve never quilted a thing in my life (except that one time when I thought I would, and didn’t).

Also, I am busy. I have nearly twice the children my mother had, and not all of them are as perfectly angelic as I was. Consequently, my homemade gifts have to be a little more simple. There are no giant Pandas coming out of my house and there never will be, unless the Chinese government finally recognizes that my house is, in fact, a zoo.

It’s a good thing I don’t think simplicity has to equate to boring or thoughtless. A simple gift can be lovely, especially when it is made by you for someone you love.

Today’s Simply Homemade project is about as simple as it gets. In fact, if you have children, they will love to make these for their teachers, grandmas, and favorite cousins.

(If there’s one thing I love, it’s outsourcing the homemade component of some of these projects to my children. That is, after all, why I had so many of them. Children, that is, not projects.)

Now, on to the gift-making!

Christmas Lights Bracelets

The colors in these bracelets remind me of Christmas lights. They sparkle and catch the light and look so cheerful on a winter day. l find I wear them all the time because they go with everything. You can wear them with a dress or with jeans, and with just about any color in your wardrobe.

Of course, these Christmas Lights bracelets couldn’t be easier to make (that’s why we’re making them for our Simply Homemade series, you know). All you need to do this project is elastic thread and silver-lined seed beads, the kind you can get at the craft store for next to nothing.

I also chose two accent beads: faceted, silver beads and larger, multi-colored seed beads–the exact same seed beads as the others, only larger. You can see them in the blurry picture below (no, it’s not your eyes).

I strung the beads in a simple pattern on the elastic thread using a beading needle. A beading needle makes life so much easier because those beads are tiny and my eyes aren’t what they used to be (note: blurry photo above).

As you can see from the photo, I began the pattern with one faceted metallic bead. These really catch the light and make the bracelets sparkle, so don’t skip that part! I followed the faceted bead with one of the larger seed beads (a different color each time), then sandwiched it with another metallic bead. Finally, I strung ten small seed beads in a row.

I repeated the pattern seven times per bracelet, but you might need to adjust the repetitions based on the wrist size of the recipient.

I made five bracelets for this tutorial, but I’ve given as many as eight at a time because the impact of this gift is in the quantity. The more bracelets you have, the more beautiful it becomes.

Tie all the bracelets up in a ribbon for gift-giving. This keeps them neat and pretty in the box, and that’s important if you have present-shakers in your house like I do.

Simple, right? Seed beads and elastic thread–that’s all it takes make someone’s season merry and bright.

Merry and Bright

Variations: Seed beads come in all the colors of the rainbow. You do not have to choose jewel tones. Pick the colors your loved one likes best. You can also try using crystals or pearls as accent beads. Have fun!

Tomorrow’s Simply Homemade project will require butter, sugar, and a candy thermometer. Yum!

Simply Homemade: The Making of a More Meaningful Holiday

“Laura sat thinking. She was making a little picture frame of cross-stitch in wools on thin, silver-colored cardboard. Up the sides and across the top she had made a pattern of blue flowers and green leaves. Now she was outlining the picture-opening in blue. While she put the tiny needle through the perforations in the cardboard and drew the fine, colored wool carefully after it, she was thinking how wistfully Carrie had looked at the beautiful thing. She decided to give it to Carrie for Christmas. Someday, perhaps, she could make another for herself.”

-Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter

Long ago, before I was born, Christmas was a simple season. Black Friday had not yet been conceived of, nor had shopping malls and toy catalogs and parking lots without enough spaces.

On Christmas morning, real gifts were opened because there was no such thing as a “gift card” back then, and no one would think of sticking money in a card and calling it a present because that was rude, plain and simple.

The gifts, if any, were crafted in the secret corners on dark winter nights, fashioned with no little creative thinking out of the leftover bits and pieces of everyday life: a length of ribbon, a piece of leftover wood, some fabric that was too little to be made into anything else.

The homemade presents were simple but delightful. How could it not be delightful to give something you had created especially for someone you loved? And how could it not feel like a very special honor to receive it?

“Pa and Uncle Peter had each a pair of new, warm mittens, knit in little squares of red and white. Ma and Aunt Eliza had made them.

Aunt Eliza had brought Ma a large red apple stuck full of cloves. How good it smelled! And it would not spoil, for so many cloves would keep it sound and sweet.

Ma gave Aunt Eliza a little needle-book she had made, with bits of silk for covers and soft white flannel leaves into which to stick the needles.”

-Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods

How far we have come from those days! Now, children concoct wish lists that sound like ransom notes and parents rush about, stressed within an inch of their lives, trying to give their children exactly what they want so the kids won’t be disappointed. Somehow, disappointing the children on Christmas is the worst thing ever, even if the children are behaving like greedy little monsters.

We feel guilty if we don’t “spend enough” on someone, or if we buy the “wrong thing” for someone we have allowed ourselves to feel obligated to purchase for in the first place. When did we begin to feel compelled to give gifts to anyone? Gift-giving should be an act of love, not a duty.

Even so, most of us would never dream of giving a handmade gift to someone on our Christmas list, even if we resent the fact that we have to give them a gift in the first place. Somehow, we’d rather purchase another scented candle to give to someone who doesn’t need it instead of making something simple but thoughtful. Why?

We are busy, to be sure, and many of us do not think we have the time to make anything for anyone. But I think something else is going on in our culture. I think we have come so far from the days of the past that we, as a society, now associate simple handmade gifts with poverty or stinginess, not creativity and thoughtful affection.

What a shame!

In each stocking, there was a pair of bright red mittens, and there was a long, flat stick of red-and-white striped peppermint candy, all beautifully notched along each side.

They were all so happy they could hardly speak at first. They just looked with shining eyes at those lovely Christmas presents. But Laura was happiest of all. Laura had a rag doll.

–Little House in the Big Woods

I wonder what would happen if, instead of rushing to join the crowds and feed the consumerism that has choked out Christmas, we attempted to make a more meaningful holiday by creating and giving thoughtful gifts to those we love?

They don’t have to be complicated.

They don’t have to be expensive.

They don’t even have to be time-consuming.

Homemade Christmas gifts can be thoughtful, meaningful, and simple. Starting tomorrow, November 15, I will be showing you some ways to make a simply homemade Christmas. These are projects that require no special skills. Many of them can be done quickly or while watching It’s a Wonderful Life for the millionth time.

My hope is that these projects will jump start your creativity and get you thinking about ways you can bless your loved ones with one-of-a-kind gifts you created just for them. Maybe you can even skip Black Friday altogether. Wouldn’t that make Christmas even more delightful?

For tomorrow’s project, you will need brightly-colored seed beads, elastic thread, and a bit of ribbon. Now that’s simple.

*The posts in this series may contain affiliate links for your convenience.

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