"toffee" news and stories

Ghirardelli has been making delicious dark chocolates since the company opened more than 150 years ago, but to meet growing consumer demand, they have introduced some new, gourmet chocolates. Intense Dark Gourmet Chocolate Bars are blends of unique Ghirardelli dark chocolate with new flavors and varying cocoa contents, designed to appeal to a wide variety of chocolate lovers. The four flavors include:

Twilight Delight - 72% cacao smooth dark chocolate
Citrus Sunset - 60% cacao dark chocolate with orange and caramel crunch
Espresso Escape - 60% cacao dark chocolate with finely ground espresso beans
Toffee Interlude - 42% cacao dark chocolate with toffee and carmelized almonds

Ghirardelli hosted an event with chocolate experts including Alice Medrich and Elizabeth Faulkner to determine the best food and drink pairings with these chocolates, all of which can be viewed here. My favorite suggestion is to pair Espresso Escape with marshmallows to make "adult" s'mores. Yum! The 3.5 ounce bars should be in stores around the country by now, but I have only seen them online so far.

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Looking for a tasty treat to make during Passover? Look no further than David Lebovitz's blog. The blogosphere's favorite chocolatier has posted an easy and delicious-looking recipe for Caramelized Matzoh Crunch topped with - what else - chocolate. Even if you don't normally celebrate Passover, you have surely noticed the influx of crispy matzoh in your local grocery store. It makes an excellent crispy base for these treats, which are topped with a simple toffee layer and coated in melted chocolate and slivered almonds. David offers several potential variations with his recipe, if dark chocolate and almonds aren't your favorite. White chocolate and pistachios, anyone?

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Sometimes, particularly when you have just finished a delicious or surprising meal, you might wonder where the inspiration for a dish comes from. More often, this is a phenomenon associated with words. The name "banoffi," for example, is something that must be the subject of much rumination, for who would assign such a ridiculous name to a dessert? Ian Dowding and Nigel Mackenzie would, and it is this delicious pie that has both a surprising name and a surprisingly delicious flavor.

It was in 1972 at The Hungry Monk in East Sussex, England that Dowding and Mackenzie melded the syllables of the words "banana" and "toffee" to name a pie that contained those very same ingredients: banoffi pie. though the restaurant's website gives a good description of the origin of the dessert, Mr. Dowding described its true evolution in the Guardian.

The pie began as a dish that was unsuccessful more often than not. It was a recipe from America that involved folding toffee into pastry cream and layering it in a pie shell that provided the foundation for the pie. After much refinement and a little inspiration regarding the method of making the toffee itself, the banoffi pie found itself with a permanent seat on the Hungry Monk menu and a place in British hearts. The pie is popular outside of the UK, as well. If you want to try your hand at it, the recipe provided by the Hungry Monk is the perfect place to start.

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I saw Nicole's Food Porn post on gingerbread toffee in December, and the culinary green-eyed monster took over. I had to have that toffee! And I had to wrap it in pretty little waxed-paper twists and take just that picture. I printed out the recipe and stuck it to the white board in my kitchen.

Weeks later, I gathered my sisters and babysitter for a candy-making day. I got out the candy-making chocolate, the sugar, the spices, the butter, and we all took turns stirring and measuring and playing with my son, Truman. The first thing on the list: gingerbread toffee.

The recipe was fairly easy to follow, even though it was all in metric: the ratios were even (100ml:100ml:50ml) and, as one cup = 250ml, I multiplied the recipe x2.5. I also took a wild guess at the "golden syrup" and ended up using a combination of dark corn syrup and maple syrup (there is no exact substitute available in the U.S.). The most important bit: Dagmar mentions in the comments to be careful not to cook your batter too short, or too long. Mine got cooked too long and came out hard and brittle. It was still absolutely delicious, crunchy, and lovely - but didn't make my longed-for photos come out quite the same way.