Chocolate Toffee Bark

This delicious treat is also known across the internet as "chocolate crack". I had a friend visiting from out of town this weekend and I wanted to pull together something pretty quick and delicious to share with her and this is what I chose. 

This is one of those recipes that is in SO MANY different places on the internet that it's impossible to know where it started out. This is my version of the classic recipe.

Chocolate Toffee Bark

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• one package chocolate chips
• one box of graham crackers
• 1/2 cup toasted chopped nuts

Line a large cookie sheet with foil and parchment. This makes cleaning up so much easier. Fill the sheet with graham crackers (or saltine/soda crackers) to cover the whole bottom.

Mix the butter and sugar together over medium heat until the butter melts and starts to bubble. The mixture won't really combine and come together until it starts to boil. Once it comes to a boil mix constantly for about five minutes and pour over the crackers.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 5 to 8 minutes until bubbly and heated through.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top and let sit for a few minutes until the chocolate melts. You'll see the color change from chalky to shiny. When the chocolate's melted, spread across the top of the toffee.

Sprinkle with whatever toppings you'd like. I used chopped nuts and sea salt. I read a version of the recipe today that used crushed candy canes. Totally up to you.

Let the toffee cool a bit and then put it in the fridge until solid, about an hour. Break it up into smaller pieces and you're ready to go. I usually keep this in a large cookie tin in the fridge to keep the chocolate and toffee solid. The upside is that this stuff is delicious. The downside is that this stuff is so delicious that I can't stop eating it when it's in the house. As soon as the weekend was over I was forced to take the leftovers to work and keep them there so I wouldn't finish off the batch by myself. This is a great, easy treat to take to any holiday gathering.

Have you ever made a batch of chocolate "crack"?

Macaron Monday

One of my friends, and reader of the blog (hi Pam!), suggested I should  try making some French macarons. As it happens, I already have so in honor of her request, I thought I’d share the process with you. In North America, most of us think of macaroons as a pile of coconut, sometimes covered in chocolate. In France, the macaron is a very different thing. While we may pronounce them the same way, there's really nothing similar about them.

What a macaron should look like

Back in November I decided to take on the challenge of making macarons for a friend’s birthday. As far as I can remember she has loved these things since living in the UK. This same friend was the recipient of the chocolate-covered sponge toffee I posted about way back when.

If you’re ever planning on making macarons, I beg you, don’t spend too much time searching the internet. While I managed to find myself a good recipe to work from, I also freaked myself out big time. Some say the eggs need to rest at room temperature for days. Apparently, the older the egg white, the better the macaron. The batter must sit at room temperature for an hour before baking to ensure the proper “foot”, etc, etc. The information all started to seem so daunting that I almost didn’t do it. I’m glad I did.

I ended up using David Lebovitz’s chocolate macaron recipe. Somehow it seemed slightly less scary than the others I found. I also improvised the chocolate ganache filling I used. I melted together some semi-sweet chocolate chips, leftover dark chocolate, and the extra whipping cream I had left from a batch of salted caramel. I wish I had a picture of the final product with the filling. I thought they turned out quite well. While they didn’t look exactly like the ones from the bakeries, my friend seemed more than pleased with her gift. I had never tried a macaron before, so I had nothing to compare them to, but I thought they were pretty tasty.

Not quite as smooth as the "real thing"

Before adding the filling

While I wouldn’t go out making these every day, I definitely suggest you give them a try. There was quite a sense of satisfaction when they came out of the oven looking something like the pictures I’d seen. Also, in doing more reading after the fact, I came across the blog BraveTart. She makes these things every single day and has put together a list of the top 10 macaron myths and has also kindly provided her recipe. If you’re going to try them out check out her site.

Have you ever tried baking or cooking something that scared the bejeezus out of you for fear it was going to fail?

Cookies for Breakfast

I am lazy in the mornings. I don't want to get up any earlier than I have to. This means that I routinely eat my breakfast once I get to the office. It seems more efficient to eat while catching up on my emails instead of taking away from my precious time in bed. A few years ago, Kristen sent me a link to a recipe for breakfast cookies and my life was forever changed. I tried out the recipe right away and fell in love. For quite awhile, these were my go-to option for our "second breakfast". For close to 3 years, Kristen and I would take a mid-morning break and head to the kitchen for a snack. Most often she would have peanut butter and toast and, for a long while, I had a slightly warmed breakfast cookie. 

Delicious goodies

I wouldn't exactly call these things healthy but they are certainly a better option than some. They're full of oats, nuts, and dried fruit and actually have some good staying power in the belly. The recipe came from a Canada.com interview with a chef from Vancouver. The recipe is great as is, but here are the changes I make...

• reduce the sugar to a total of 1 cup - with all of the dried fruit, the cookies are more than sweet enough with less sugar
• mix up the dried fruit - I usually use a dried fruit mix made up of dates, prunes, apricots, apples, peaches, and pears and use a total of 1.5 cups of the assortment. This time I got it at Bulk Barn but they also sell a similar mix at Costco
• add more healthy stuff - I usually add ground flax, use some whole wheat flour, or make some other healthy addition. This time I didn't have any of the good stuff on hand.
• make the cookies smaller - in the past I've always formed the cookies with a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop. This time I decided to make them half the size and they still seem like they'll make a good snack. 
• freeze them - I make a batch of these (38 at the smaller size), wrap them up in plastic wrap and throw them in the freezer. They keep really well. About 15 seconds in the microwave and you're ready to eat. 
  

It's all about the prep work

Ready for the oven

The finished product

I think they cookies turned out great. A good recipe to use as a starting point is as important as the skill (or patience) to execute it. I'm very much looking forward to breakfast tomorrow!

What are your favorite options for a portable breakfast? Do you have any breakfast rituals?