Salted Almond Toffee

I love toffee! So I play around with the recipe now and then. A year ago, the salted caramel craze got me thinking and I made my first batch of salted almond toffee. I love the combination of the crunchy toffee with the salted almonds! I hope you do too!

A couple weeks ago I got an offer to see what some of my photography would like put onto canvas from Easy Canvas Prints and I jumped at it. Who wouldn't? Put a favorite print on canvas? Yes please!  My mother and I had been talking a few weeks before about how she'd like to get some of my photographs up on the walls of her cabin (This is your cue to say "Ah! What a sweet mother!") and I thought this would be a perfect gift for her (Ah! What a sweet daughter!").

You can see the original photo on the left and canvas print on the right. It's a lovely replication. A few minor differences get made in the translation between photograph and canvas, as you can see: slightly more dark, a little less crisp, and the colors are a bit cooler. When they aren't put side by side you'd hardly notice. The texture of the canvas is lovely, very smooth, fluid even. My mother is absolutely delighted with it and is thinking of getting a few others and creating a collage. I find it a little funny that instead of putting my artwork on the fridge like mom's do in elementary school....she's putting up my artwork of what's in my fridge. Trust me, this looks much better than my finger paintings of unicorns! 

Now, back to toffee (Ah! What a sweet treat!). Is that getting old yet? I love toffee. It's one of my obsessions. Now, as I am focusing on my summer being more like a true summer vacation, I decided some toffee was in order. A tin of toffee on my desk at work just makes the horrid heat, the annoying boss, the excessively large stack of work that got put on my desk while my back was turned all feel far more manageable. Everything feels better with toffee...even work.  

So why salted? Just for a little twist, a little salty sweet flavor. If you like that idea you should also look at this toffee:

Bacon Toffee

But, if bacon's not your style, salted almonds add an extra bit of flair for your traditional toffee. Enjoy!

Salted Almond Toffee

2 cups blanched almonds

1 cup + 2 tsp. unsalted butter, divided

2 tsp fleur de sel

1 cup sugar

5 tablespoons water

1 cup chocolate chips (I prefer dark or semi-sweet)

Preheat the oven to 350.

Place the almonds in a baking dish. Toast until golden, about 12 minutes.

While the nuts are still warm, toss with two teaspoons of butter and fleur de sel until coated.

Spread the nuts out one a piece of aluminum foil into the shape of a large oval.

Cook the remaining butter, sugar, and water in a heavy saucepan, stirring constantly, until a candy thermometer says it has reached the hard crack stage. Remove from heat immediately and pour over nuts.

Allow to sit for five minutes and spread chocolate chips over the surface of the warm toffee.

When melted use a knife to spread the melted chocolate across the top of the toffee.

Any salted almonds that are not covered in toffee or chocolate can be removed and chopped as a garnish.

Allow the toffee to sit until the chocolate has set. If you’re in a hurry, place the toffee in the refrigerator to set more quickly.

When set, use a large knife to cut the toffee into pieces.

Enjoy!