Sounds amaaaaazing. Do you need to butter the cookie sheet or line it with parchment/foil?

if i don't have a cast-iron skillet, is it better to use non-stick or stainless?

sarahB,

It sure helps, and I think mom always did, so I will update the recipe to reflect that. Thanks!

Abby,

Non-stick will make your clean-up a lot easier.

you had a xmas eve tamale party?

I want a xmas eve tamale party!

Every year, Guido my friend. Tamales from a little place in Eagle Rock I believe - everything else homemade by mom. Margaritas and tamales are year 'round in LA.

There really is no need to use a nonstick pan. Toffee is just carmelized sugar and will disolve in hot water. To clean up just run hot water in the dirty pan until all of the sugar has disolved.

Actually, the best tamales aren't year round, esp. the sweet ones. The best places have seasonal specials.

Here's some great sources:
Mama's Hot Tamales Café. The season's featured tamale is shredded turkey with Oaxacan black mole, wrapped in banana leaves. But you can choose from among 15 tamales on each day's menu or from more than 60 variations available to order. $2.25 to $3 each. 2124 W. 7th St., Los Angeles. (213) 487-7474. Takeout orders, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Tamales Liliana's. Flavors include pork with red or green chile, chicken with vegetables, chile strips with cheese, fresh corn, and sweet raisin and pineapple. $1.25 each; $14 a dozen. 4629 E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave., East Los Angeles. (323) 780-0989. Open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday; 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Closed Christmas.

Tamara's Tamales. The special this Christmas is a Sinaloa-style chicken tamale with potatoes, zucchini, carrots, jalapeños, raisins, tomato and a mild red chile sauce. $2.25 each; $25 a dozen. Other tamales range from $1.45 to $6.25 (king crab). Order at least two days in advance. 13352 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 305-7714. Open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Open Christmas Eve. Closed Christmas Day.

O SURE, rub it in, Angelenos!

Good tamales are just beginning to show up in NYC, sold out of coolers and black garbage bags at select subway entrances . . . YOU on the other hand have all those incredible cooks from Oaxaca hanging around.

Yes, I'm jealous.

I've had to make do with an invented tradition of ravioli (gorgonzola walnut, except it's gone out of production since last Xmas, with sage butter), green salad, and champagne. This is a friends only event - no muss, no fuss and fabulous - before people head off to their relatives on xmas day.

Girlfriend and I were just yesterday talking about having a tamales New Year's Day, to lure good tamales energy into 2006 . . .

Rachel is right. The tamales are great around Christmas - the margaritas are year 'round affair (although the limes aren't as soft - but it's one of the few exceptions I make to my seasonal-only food rule)

I made the toffee last night and it was divine. It was very easy. I never worked with sugar like that before and got a work out with the constant stirring. It recieved rave reviews from co workers already. Will be making tons more. Thanks again!

Dani - Glad you liked it. Did you take any photos? Send them in!

The tamales were from Yucca Hut in Los Feliz. Yucatan style ... flatter, firmer and wrapped in banana leaves instead of corn husks.

I didn't take pics. The evidence is gone already :). They weren't as beautiful as your photo, but just as enticing. Next time.

making toffee and candy is a lot easier if you use a candy/deepfrying thermometer -- waiting until the candy turns a color is a little vague. You should cook the sugar syrup until it hits 310 degrees F for a hard toffee. Depending on your pan, this can be anywhere from a lighter golden brown color to a darker one.

Me, what temperature should you arrive at when making peanut brittle. Mom's recipe just says "honey colored" and I have managed to overcook two batches already.

Tamales. If only I had someone to make them with. Oh yummmmmm

Abbe, it depends how hard you want the peanut brittle. I'd go fro 310 degrees (hard crack stage) but its a personal preference.
To really make candy well you must (1) have a thermometer and (2) understand the different levels of sugar syrup and crystallization. I'd say try a website like baking911.com -- they do a good job of explaining the different stages of boiling sugar. The Joy of Cooking also has a good one.

I made this toffee yesterday and it turned out amazingly well! The butter/sugar mixture boiled steadily (and I stirred it vigorously) for about 10 minutes before I started seeing little wisps of golden color developing. From there it was maybe 2 or 3 minutes until I declared it "done" and poured it onto the cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. I didn't use a thermometer and it still turned out divine! Thanks for the recipe.

SK - Many thanks for this great recipe! I tried it last night to use for office-mate gifts and it worked beautifully. I used a heavy Teflon-lined sauce pan and did not dig out the candy thermometer. The recipe description of the color change was spot-on for me. I used pecans instead of almonds & a few more chocolate chips than 1 bag (had a bit leftover from a baking project). I got 4 nice-sized gift containers from the batch (plus lots of little broken bits for family enjoyment). Appreicate your sharing this in time for us last-minute gift-makers.

I have been looking for a peanut brittle recipe using a cast iron skillet, but will try this one first as it seems very easy, I have a candy thermometer, etc. Thanks much for the heavenly sounding recipe.

this recipe does sound divine! anyone know how long it'll keep? if i make it tomorrow will it still be good to give out as gifts on christmas?

Thanks!

okay, i just made a batch, using a stainless skillet, which is now soaking in hot water. i'm sure it will be a pain to clean, but teflon is toxic!

anyway, it was really easy, looks gorgeous, and smells delicious. the hardest part of the recipe at this point will be waiting 8-12 hours before sampling it! i definitely plan to make more for gifting!

thanks for the awesome recipe!

Um yeah, the recipe turned out good, too good. I'm now knee deep in toffee. Well, at least the folks at work will be happy.

The best tomales I ever had were strawberry tomales, does anyone have a recipe for making sweet tomales. Xmas eve tomale party sounds right up my alley.

My secret weapon for cleaning up sticky pots is water set to boil on the stove top for a few minutes. The boiling water will loosen, dissolve and in other ways make your clean up jolly. A wooden spoon to agitate and rub the stubborn spots helps too.

How big of a baking sheet did you use? I have several different sizes (11x17, 9x13, 15x12, etc.) Thanks! This recipe looks awesome.

I've always abstained from making toffee due to lack of a thermometer, but it sounds like I don't need one afterall! i will be trying this soon.

I made this today and the recipe turned out WONDERFULLY. I've already eaten faaar too much toffee-it's too good to resist! Enjoy!

Glad that this was re-posted with such solid comments. I was thinking of doing toffee or a brittle of some sort to give away to others and this may be just the thing.

I love that cake stand!

I am totally adding this to my holiday candy making for office gifts this year. Last year I made the peppermint patties and the salted caramels show above and they were a HUGE hit.

Oh I love toffee. I also love tamales. And I live right outside of San Antonio---tamale central.

I highly recommend the use of a candy thermometer simply because I can't tell you how many people I've met who've broken a tooth (on a coworkers well-meant gift of candy). Some confectioners, See's Candies comes to mind, actually carry dental insurance in case a patron has a dental problem related to a piece of their candy.

I would love to make this ...sounds very doable ...so straight forward
my problem is that our cast iron pan is well seasoned and thus I am not interested in adding elements of that savouriness into my toffee.

This came out amazing! Even for a candy novice like me. I erred on the side of lighter "deep golden brown" for fear of breaking someone's tooth and it came out perfect! I used dark chocolate instead of semi-sweet. Yum!

Also, thank you so much Delphblu! The boiling water trick got the super gummy mixture out of my stainless steel saucepan in a snap!

Just tried this, and so far it looks really good! I don't have a candy thermometer, so I just watched it like a hawk.

I used a non-stick cookie sheet and it looks like I didn't need the parchment paper.

I also substituted pecan pieces as I was also making a caramel pecan pie and had those nuts on-hand. I hope it tastes as good as it looks!

Also, thanks for the hot water trick from me too - made cleanup a breeze!

Oh my... it turned out perfectly and this was my first time making candy. Soooo good!

This recipe is a definite keeper.

Do I have to worry about having a seasoned cast iron skillet? Will my toffee taste like last night's fajitas?

I love toffee!! I used to make it the more traditional way but I definitely think this sounds easier...and it just so happens that I have all these ingredients sitting in my cupboard at the moment so these are heading to the top of my to-do list!

Yum! Thanks, Sara-Kate. I'll definitely be trying this recipe.

I have *never* attempted to make candy (unless peanut brittle counts? I don't think it does?)...it seems like such an intimidating process! But this seems pretty similar to making brittle--I might have to try! Thanks for the inspiration:)

Yes, Jencolucci, your candy might taste like onion and garlic - it happened to us with peanut brittle. I'm now looking for a heavy, but cheap, skillet to dedicate to candy making. As for the onion flavored brittle - we left it on the counter when we went to a movie and our Lab ate it all. Oops.

I'd love to make these for my wedding dessert table in early Jan. i'm trying to make as much as possible in advance. About how long can I store these and what's the best way to do so?

Thanks!

I just made this and it's fantastic! I just wish it wasn't so quick/easy to make because it will be all to tempting to just whip up on a whim.

I made this yesterday but it never hardened. I have a huge blob of soggy caramel/chocolate. It tastes good, but I can't give it away and there is no way we can eat all of this (sugar coma, extended muffin top....). Any ideas for what I did wrong and what we can use it for in it's sorry soggy state?

I learned the hard way that you don't want to make candied things in wet weather. Humidity can be an issue. What I did was put my soggy candied nuts in the oven at a very low temperature to get them to dry out. It worked.

I was wondering about an unwanted savory element too. I think I'll use my enameled Le Creuset pot rather than our heavily seasoned iron skillet for this recipe.

i made this as a vegan version--so tasty & so gone!

I made this last night at 10 pm so I wouldn't have to go crazy waiting for it to cool. It's 6:41 am and I have already eaten way too much of this!! It is devine and so easy to make. My 3 year old daughter tried a sliver and proclaimed it "MMMM, yummy!" Now to make sure there's some left when the hubby wakes up...

I made this and it taste good but when I poured the toffee on the baking sheet a lot of separated butter fat oozed to the edges. Would a candy thermometer have fixed this? Do any candy experts know what I did wrong (followed recipe exactly with a cast iron skilled). Toffee is good but thick and I had to scrape away congealed butter...

Regarding the pan: my friends all seem to be throwing out their non-stick pans out of health concerns, but are intimidated by the cast-iron clean-up. I'm telling everyone about this article I found, "Using a Cast Iron Skillet Ain't So Hard!" at http://www.richsoil.com/cast-iron.jsp--it totally inspired me to go back to cast iron. Having separate pans for sweet and savory stuff sounds like a great idea, though. I think I'll just get all my friends cast iron for the holidays, along with a copy of this article!

I made a batch last night. DH declared this toffee as better than See's! I used our white enameled Le Creuset which, along with keeping the savory flavors at bay, helped me judge color and when to pull it off of the stove.

SF lady, perhaps you should've cooked it a bit longer? I had butter foam for awhile, but it eventually disappeared as I continued to stir. Or perhaps your brand of butter is the issue? I always bake with Challenge unsalted.

Thanks so much for sharing this great family recipe, Sara Kate!

I had the same problem as sf lady, the mixture looked great, but by the time it was golden brown much of the butter had separated out. Thoughts? I thought at first I had read the recipe wrong (a pound of butter!) But maybe I cooked it too long or not long enough? Seems to taste great even with all the poured off butter, but would still like to know what happened! Thanks.

I had the same problem. The butter began to separate out as I cooked the mixture down. I had foam--it went away--took a while for it all to integrate--and then a few minutes later, it was like the oil parted from the sugar mix. It tastes right, but something clearly went wrong. I use Whole foods' unsalted 365.

I just finished making a "run-through" batch of this recipe,if it does well I'll make it as stocking stuffers. Fingers crossed! It was so easy for this chick whose been decorating the house all day,what a treat of a recipe,Thanks so much!

This was easy and tasty. Just made my 2nd batch to use as gifts. We are a nut free house (at least in our cooking!) so I toasted shredded coconut for the topping. Turned out great! I used anodized non stick pan and no candy thermometer. My first batch was shipped to family in Boston last week.

i have made 2 batches now, one half and one full, and the same separation thing mentioned above happened in both! i am using a cast iron skillet (and haven't had any problem with other flavors coming through) and cooked the second batch on lower heat thinking that might be a problem. i also used a candy thermometer the second time around... but still ended up with a lot of clear liquid to pour off before mixing in the extract and spreading it on the baking tray.

edible/delicious both times, but i'm very curious about what's making this happen...

also, i used lindt 70% on the first batch and a mix of ghirardelli bittersweet and milk chocolate chips on the second. both delicious, but i think i prefer the lindt. i also added a little allspice the second time, which deepened the flavor a bit.

I don't know what I did wrong, but mine did not turn out. The butter and sugar never combined.

This was my first attempt at making candy and it turned out great. I added 3 tsp espresso powder (which I highly recommend) to make it a coffee toffee. I initially regretted the espresso because it turned the mixture a dark brown so I couldn't judge the cooking time by color. I did some frantic research and came up with a trick...you can tell a toffee is at hard crack stage when small bits dropped in cold water harden immediately.

@ SF lady and lsorm: I wonder if you didn't cook it long enough? It took quite a while for my butter and sugar to completely combine. Total cooking time for me was somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes (I didn't keep track very well).

My butter did the weird separation thing too! At the time, there were no comments indicating the same problem, so I thought it was just me. I'm in MN, where there's no moisture whatsoever in the air, so I don't think that was the cause of the separation.

I used Target brand unsalted (lowbrow, I know.) The sugar had started to caramelize and turn the perfect color of toffee, and the butter was so far separated, I didn't think cooking it longer would do anything but burn the toffee.

Now I'll have to scrape the fat off but it's definitely not gift-worthy.

the butter separating thing happened to me too!!!! i scooped a ton off before pouring it into the baking sheet, but now there is even more! I was going to try to pour it off. what are we doing wrong?!?!

I just made a batch, and I had that same problem with the butter separating out. I kept cooking it for longer than I had expected, but it still seemed nice and golden. Finally, the butter and sugar combined, but then it burned super fast! So now I have burned the toffee.

I just googled my question about this and found a helpful link. I probably did not stir this constantly enough (children required my attention at times). And I wish I had known about the hot water trick!

http://candy.about.com/od/carameltoffee/f/separate_faq.htm

Thank you for all your wonderful recipes. May this season find you and your family and friends filled with good food and cheer.

Just made this last night and it's excellent! I used a pretty good Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips and noticed today that the chocolate seems to have bloomed...any tips to avoid this?

Wow, what a great recipe- I suspect the problem with the butter separating may have happened if the butter was ever frozen, prior to making the toffee. Freezing butter can change its physical properties.

I made several batches without the butter problem problem and to rave reviews. But I did notice that with one batch, there was a different problem: The chocolate layer didn't stay stuck to the toffee layer well (when breaking it up into pieces). Did anyone else have that issue? Just guessing- but I didn't let that batch cool off overnight, not as much time before I started snacking...!

I had the butter problem too- the butter was never frozen and I stirred it constantly, so I don't think those were the issues. Anyone have any idea what caused this/how to fix it? It still tasted great. Thanks!

I did a half batch, in a cast iron skillet, poured it into a 9 inch buttered cake pan with non stick foil. No problems, but it did take awhile for the butter to get sucked into the boiling sugar mixture. I plan to drop the butter down to 7 ounces for the half batch. The sample I poured into a small glass disc turned out great without being sugar gritty. I got it the color of creamy peanut butter and it's lovely.

Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I just made a batch last night and my first candy-making experience was greatly rewarded thanks to your simple instructions. It came out great, was delicious, and I packed a bunch up for friends. I'll be making this again and again for sure.

I've made this twice now and it turned out great both times. I will say that if you are truly using a large cast iron skillet and you are a wuss like me, watch out, because it is difficult to pour boiling hot sugar from a super heavy skillet, as my t-shirt with hardened toffee all over can attest! I also found the butter and sugar took longer than expected to combine and required not just constant but vigorous stirring. All told this is a very easy, and popular recipe. I sprinkled sea salt on top of the chocolate this year. Yum!

I had the same problem as annamaria: my chocolate layer did not stick to the toffee. Also, the toffee has not hardened. I thought that the mixture was deep golden brown, but maybe I didn't cook it long enough?

The first time I made this it turned out really well! Then I tried to make it again, and the butter separating thing happened to me. And the third batch as well!

Tried this for the first time last night. Fantastic! I added some sea salt to the top, as well.

But I didn't use my cast-iron skillet, for two reasons: 1. Like others, I was concerned about getting an off-taste from previous dishes cooked therein, and 2. It seemed like the black skillet would make it a lot harder to judge the color of the toffee. But my stainless-steel skillet did the trick just fine.

Won't my co-workers be happy when I bring it to work today!

The butter thing happened to me as well, but I was able to finally get it to come together with a lot of VERY vigorous and quick whisking. I was worn out by the end but the toffee turned out AMAZING. I've never tried it before, so I was thrilled. Wish I could say the same for my caramel, which turned out hard as a rock. I think I'm going to turn that into toffee tonight. Toffee is my new Christmas thing. I'm also excited about playing with additions (cayenne, macadamia, candy cane sprinkles...) Thanks for this recipe!

One side note: I used Kosher salt instead of table, and assuming that the recipe was table, I did one and a half times the amount. I think the recipe meant kosher, because my toffee came out kind of salty. Bonus: it was delicious that way!

I just finished making this and did what LKAustin did -- whisked like crazy to emulsify the butter and sugar. I added the espresso powder recommended by another person and it is really delicious. I'll be making lots of this for Holiday gifting.

I used a heavy-based stainless steel pot instead.

First try, I was just about to remove the pot from the heat (because it had turned a nice deep brown color), but all of a sudden the mixture began boiling like crazy and started smoking. It burnt.

Second try, I turned the heat off when I thought it might be ready, then continued the stirring in the still-hot pot. It wasn't ready, so I turned the heat back on and repeated this about 2-3 times until it was finally good to pour out.

I had the butter separation thing on my second try, towards the end of cooking. I did a lot of vigorous whisking which didn't help, but what helped in the end was a leisurely stirring of the mixture with the whisk, in a circular motion. Everything was brought together and my toffee was a success! ...

...until the toffee started to and kept oozing oil after it had set. I don't know why. :(

By the way, I used a silicone mould sheet, so I ended up with several semi-spheres of toffee. Figured it'd be cuter and more wrap-friendly.

So want some now!