Pumpkin toffee?

[menthe_reglisse]

Does anyone have a good recipe for chewy toffee? My ancestral recipe is delicious, can be made as treacle toffee for extra nom, and very easy, but it comes out so rock hard that the sharp corners (where you've wacked it into pieces with a toffee hammer) hurt the inside of your mouth. Also, if any lasts beyond 12 hours it starts softening into gloop

Comments

[slightlyfoxed]

Lemons:

Ginger beer, which requires ginger as well, and may feel unseasonal, but you could mull it and it would be delicious on a cold winter evening. Possibly. (I use the simple one-off ginger beer recipes, rather than the versions that you perpetually feed and drain.)

Lemon syrup/cordial which could be made into hot lemon drinks on a c. w. e.

Pickle them for use in Middle Eastern cuisine - I love it when bits of pickled lemon turn up in my couscous but have not tried making them myself. But as you already pickle, I thought it might be within your power.

[menthe_reglisse]

Actually, now you mention it, my ancestral lemonade recipe works just as well hot, and is delicious.

I don't think I've ever had pickled lemon, and I've not pickled before (only chutneyed. And been pickled) but that sounds worth a go.

[clotilde]

Candied peel for the lemons (although this involves sugar syrup, so not very child-friendly cooking). And I have a recipe for the sort of toffee you pull, adnd it looks like fun, but I've never tried making it.

[menthe_reglisse]

Ooh, now candied peel sounds like a very good plan. Do you have a link for the pulling toffee? I may well never make it, but I'd like to know how its done as I keep imagining people burning themselves on hot toffee or getting covered in stickiness from head to toe.

[fayroberts]

My toffee is exactly like your toffee, but honestly, the fudge isn't all that much of an arse (and my arms are pretty feeble nowadays!). Also: I have crystallised fruit recipes and that might work well for the lemons.

Erm. All my other sweet recipes are biscuits and flapjack. The shortbread is very low sugar, if that helps?!

[menthe_reglisse]

Crystallised fruit is a fine plan - I remember you making lots a few years ago. Yes please to a recipe.

Fudge is definitely too much for my arms - while you were NOLJ my arms got much worse again and while they're tolerable now, I have to be quite careful. Which is a great pity as homemade fudge is my favourite sort.

Biscuits etc. is a good plan as they're very child friendly. I hadn't thought of that as we make them anyway, but we could make them Christmassy in some way. Thank you!

[slightlyfoxed]

Christmassifying biscuit tip: If you cut a small hole in the middle of a basic flattish [creamed-sugar, add flour] biscuit, you can put half a boiled sweet in the hole, and make a stained-glass window biscuit. You can also make the hole a Christmassy shape (e.g. a star). However, it's hard to get them off the baking sheet without the 'glass' cracking.

[menthe_reglisse]

Oh wow, that sounds fabulous. Will definitely try that, but on greaseproof paper. Thank you!

[booklectic]

A bit late, but I'm planning to try this lemon pasta at some point as it looks lovely:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/baked-lemon-pasta/

[menthe_reglisse]

Ooh, that sounds lovely. Will try and report.

[kissmeforlonger]

I found this recipe and info about Welsh toffee-making customs - it hadn't occurred to me that the word Taffy might have the same origin: http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2005/12/noson-gyflaith-welsh-toffee-making.html

[menthe_reglisse]

Ah, thank you. So just 'be brave' is how you do the pulling molten toffee thing, which I had wondered about. Might delegate that to resident person-with-asbestos-fingers.