Today I contemplated the purchase of some sparklers. A little bit of low key fireworks to celebrate the 5th.
However, the only place in Santa Clara County that you can buy fireworks is in Gilroy….. So I decided to do a bit of alternative celebration by making some delicious cinder toffee.
Fiery Cinder Toffee Recipe – a variation of the original available in Sweets Made Simple by Miss Hope and Mr Greenwood, or here
Ingredients
vegetable or peanut oil, for greasing
75g/2½oz granulated sugar
125g/5oz of golden syrup (because I didn’t have any liquid glucose)
2tsp ground ginger – NB. I LOVE GINGER! This was also approximately the amount remaining in my jar, so I figured that I may as well use it all up! If you would like a less fiery toffee eating experience, then I would suggest dialing the ginger back to 1tsp instead.
15g/½oz bicarbonate of soda
Method
Use the oil to grease a 23cm/9in square baking tin that’s 4cm/1½in deep. Line it with baking parchment, then grease again with a little oil.
Place the sugar, golden syrup, ground ginger and a tablespoon of water into a deep, heavy-bottomed pan. (Make sure the pan is very deep as the mixture will bubble up later.)
Heat gently to dissolve the sugar, then increase the heat very slightly, until the mixture has turned into a syrup.
At this stage there will be a lovely smell just like that of warm ginger cake.
Lush.
Watch the pan very carefully from this point on, boiling it steadily at a fairly low heat, until the mixture turns amber. It should be the colour of marmalade. This will take approximately 15 minutes.
Turn the heat off and get a balloon whisk to hand. Add the bicarbonate of soda and whisk it all together. It will bubble up right to the top of the pan, so take care not to burn yourself as the caramel will be very hot.
Immediately pour the toffee into the prepared tin and leave to cool completely (about two hours – Or, if you are a little impatient, once it has firmed up a bit stick it in the freezer until nice and hard).
When cold, prise the toffee out of the tin using a flat knife and break it up into chunks. If it is difficult to release from the tin, hit it with a hammer. (I put it in a zip lock bag and then hit it against the worktop)
With this amount of ginger….
Man it is Spicy!
But a delicious fire of the mouth. I also made some chocolate and ginger cupcakes (my standard chocolate mix using 2 eggs and 1/2tsp ground ginger), added a little bit of chocolate buttercream, then topped them off with a little bit of cinder toffee:
Yummy!
…… then I found one lonely cake firework in the cupboard……
Happy Guy Fawkes Day to my fellow Brits!
Baking, Making, and Crafting 