Lisa’s Letters Home: A Tale of Two Candies

I asked a few teacher friends of mine whether or not they enjoyed receiving homemade presents from their students at Christmas or store bought. All agreed that homemade (and the simpler, the better) was their preference. This is a big plus for me because not only does it save us a few pennies, it saves me a trip to the mall. My goodness, do I hate the mall in December.

I got the idea to make candies for teacher presents because they can be made in advance and travel well – an important consideration when they’re going to be bashed about in a primary schooler’s book bag. They are also something the kids can help assemble or in the case of the second recipe, bash into pieces. (This part really appealed to my 7-year-old.)

My lovely friend Annalisa Barbieri mentioned that she was making a batch of salted caramel chocolates (http://paneamoreechachacha.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/salted-caramel-chocolates.html), which looked like it involved a lot less fuss than the salted caramels I was going to make for teacher presents. Her recipe doesn’t call for fretting over caramel and constantly taking its temperature like a poorly toddler.

I know, I know – salted sweets are all over the place right now – but these chocolates are so simple and delicious. The caramel is incredibly sweet, but combined with the dark chocolate and salt, strikes a lovely balance.

It’s a pretty little chocolate, and best of all, you don’t even need to make the caramel for the filling. Slacker mum APPROVES. I did end up making some caramel, mostly because I could use it for other things (like for stuffing my face.) There are a lot of no-fuss salted caramel recipes out there that will work really nicely, like this one from Nigella Lawson: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/salted-caramel-sauce

You can keep the caramel in the fridge for a week or two, and you can microwave it for a few seconds if you want to use it as a sauce on ice cream. To make the chocolates, I used petite fours moulds I got from a cake supply shop online, which cost less than £2.

The second candy we made does require a bit of babysitting, but it’s worth the effort. I was looking up recipes for chocolate bark (which, incidentally, is one of the easiest things to make and also make great gifts) and came across this one for chocolate toffee butter crunch: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/candy/toffee-butter-crunch/ I hoped that it would turn out like a Skor (Dime bar), and it did. With nuts on top! It’s like chocolate-covered crack. I need it out of my fridge yesterday.

Both candies can be made at least one week in advance, and will happily live in the fridge for about two weeks. I wouldn’t normally keep chocolate in the fridge, but these treats don’t get that white haze on them that refrigerated chocolate normally does. Don’t ask me why; it’s probably something really sciencey.