Dark Toffee

Dark Toffee I’m in a sweet frame of mind, and here’s a toffee I love to munch on. It’s also used in our Toffee Ice Cream, and I’ll put up the recipe for that in due course. I always love making candy, because I find it such a miracle that sugar can transform itself so radically.

This toffee is very dark and rich, since the recipe calls for dark brown sugar, and one inevitably eats far too much of it. One can, of course, make it with light brown or even regular sugar, but I like the deep flavour of the molasses contained in dark brown sugar.

Ingredients:

  • 150 g butter
  • 200 g dark brown sugar
  • 50 ml water
  • 1 teaspoon golden syrup

What to Do:

  1. Butter a small baking dish.
  2. Combine all of the ingredients in a thick-bottomed saucepan.
  3. Stir over medium heat until the ingredients are combined.
  4. Turn up the heat and stop stirring.
  5. It will start boiling.
  6. If it starts smoking around the edges, stir gently in a circle around the edge to keep it from burning.
  7. Check if it’s ready by dropping a bit of the toffee in a cup of cold water. It should be firm but not hard to the touch.
  8. Immediately remove from the heat and pour into the buttered baking dish.
  9. Toffee CloseupAllow to cool somewhat.
  10. When it’s mostly hardened, score it with a knife to make it easier to break.
  11. Allow to cool completely, break up and enjoy!

Notes:

  1. A word of caution – caramelised sugar is very, very hot, so please take care when making this!
  2. Make sure the pan is very clean before you start. If there is residue already on the pan, it is more likely the candy will burn.
  3. The final product will have the consistency of the bit you drop into the cold water. If you like your toffee soft, take it off the heat when it forms a soft ball when dropped in the water. If you like your toffee hard, keep cooking and take it off the heat when it forms a hard ball in the water.

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White Wellies Spotted In Dublin!

Blog Award In the very unlikely event that you weren’t there and the suspense was killing you – yes – I did wear the entire get-up to the awards list night – white wellies, chef’s hat, dessert-print trousers and all. At least everyone knew who I was, although the funniest thing about it was when I was in the lift heading up to my room, an elderly Scottish couple staying in the hotel smiled at me sympathetically and said, “You’re only just finished? It’s a tough job. I bet you have to cook our breakfast as well tomorrow!”

The night was great, I was honoured to win Best Business Blog, but what really made the evening special meeting and chatting with so many other brilliant bloggers including Frank (thanks for the drink), Simon (congrats), Paul (thanks for sponsoring), Grannymar (congrats), Laura, Sinead (congrats), Manuel, Shane (congrats), Rick (congrats and well done on the night) Copernicus, Deborah (so sorry I won’t make brunch), Jen, Martin, Val (thanks for the drink!), Granddad (congrats), Feebee, Krishna, Markham and so many others that I’d be here all day!

Congrats to all the winners, and thanks so much to Damien and everyone who put on such a great night.

P.S. Thanks also to George Bush for the introductions of each category. (See here).

P.P.S. There are photos here and here.

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Sample Spreads

Book of Sweet Things I’ve received the first sample spreads for our book from Mercier Press, and it’s beginning to feel real! We’ve even made it onto the “Authors” page of their website. With a bit of luck, books should be in all the shops in Ireland by the end of April and available on-line as well…

I’m off to Dublin, with my wellies in the bag!

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Dress Code

Sean Kieran Chefs Jackets I’m half thinking, for the craic, of going to the blog awards dressed in full ice cream man regalia, including white wellie boots, which I have always wanted to wear in Dublin, and a big floppy Gelato chefs hat. Of course, it would be easier to pull off such a thing with my brother Sean (photo, right), who is fearless but sadly unable to attend. Still, it is tempting. What do you think?

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A Few News Items

Ice cream microphone For anyone interested, I will be on Newstalk tomorrow (Thursday) around 11:30am talking about tasting ice cream. I think there will be someone on from Green and Blacks as well, so between the ice cream and the chocolate, it should be a sweet show…

Thanks to Declan Burke who was on Matt Cooper yesterday talking about books from bloggers (a rapidly growing bunch) and kindly gave Ice Cream Ireland and our upcoming book a mention.

Finally, this site has made the finalist shortlist for the “Best Blog” category at the Irish Blog Awards along with Bock The Robber, Maman Poulet, On The Record, Fatmammycat.com, Beaut.ie, Twenty Major, Gingerpixel, Irish Flirty Something, Grannymar. I’m thrilled to be among such an impressive bunch!

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Taste of Spring

Crocus I’m in such a good mood! The sun is shining here in Dingle, this morning I found the most beautiful crocus (photo above) in my garden, there are daffodils popping up everywhere, and it well and truly feels like Spring!

I’m happy that my friend Cynthia won an Oscar for her documentary Freeheld, and I was delighted for Glen Hansard as well, who we’ve been lucky enough to hear in Dingle on numerous occasions.

And, best of all, after almost a month of grinding through yearly accounts, paperwork, and pre-season planning, I’m finally going back into the ice cream kitchen this afternoon to play (developing caramelised coffee sauce and better chocolate chunks). Things are looking up!

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What Keeps Me Blogging

A journalist asked me a couple of days ago whether I’d keep blogging if I didn’t get any comments or feedback. Although I enjoy writing about the sweet things I love, there is little doubt in my mind that some of your excellent comments as well as feedback like this keeps me at it. So… I’m adding “Recent Comments” to my sidebar as a little way of saying “Thanks!”

Cappuccino Trials

Cappuccino Anyone who knows us and our shops, knows that we are incredibly obsessive about coffee. I’m not sure it’s healthy or that it makes much financial sense, for we spend too many countless hours tasting and trying to get it right. But that’s what we do.

Over the years, we have made many improvements, both in terms of process and taste. We’ve also moved to a Fairtrade bean and lately organic milk. Those are steps that we feel very good about, but the trick is to keep the coffees tasting good and coming out consistent.

Bad foam in milkI have written here about the difficulties of milk in the winter – how the lack of protein makes it harder to get good foam. The bubbles are too large (see photo), and the foam collapses easily. This seems to be compounded with organic milk, although some days it seems that it works better than others. Customers have noticed, and they are complaining.

The bottom line is this – using fresh and natural products is not always, by any means, the easiest thing to do. There are many reasons to go with the easy way – there is milk designed for frothing that is controlled for protein and froths perfectly every time. That’s really appealing because consistency is probably the most important part of keeping happy customers. The only problem is that we don’t like the taste.

I think the benefits of using organic milk, both in terms of how it tastes and for feeling good about it, make it worthwhile to stick with it and work on a solution. There’s a Chinese proverb, “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor people perfected without trials.”

Let’s hope the last bit applies to cappuccinos!

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