Buttercrunch
I remember going to my grandmother’s house at Christmas time when I was growing up. She always had “NOEL” in red felt letter magnets on her fridge. She was annoyed because whenever the grandkids came over, one of us was bound to change the letters to spell LEON or some other nonsense word.
My grandmother, who we call Mom, would also show up at our Christmas buffet dinner with a plastic Christmas tree platter full of goodies. She had sugar cookies, ginger snaps, cheese biscuits, divinity, peanut butter ritz, and buttercrunch.
As I kid, I always went for the sugar cookies and peanut butter ritz, but now as an adult, I realize I was really missing out by not eating the buttercrunch. Most of you probably call this toffee, but for some reason it has always been buttercrunch to my family.
It’s oh so buttery. It has that rich caramel taste with a nice crunch, and then coated in chocolate. You seriously can’t go wrong with eating this. Mom, my actual mom, and my sister, always coat both sides in chocolate. I find that a hassle, and think one side of chocolate is absolutely perfect, but to each his own.
This is a quick treat to make and makes great neighbor gifts. You absolutely cannot make this with out a candy thermometer, so don’t even try. Hitting that soft crack stage is crucial in getting the right crunch and texture. I just made a second batch of this because I ate all of the first batch. I ate so much of it, that I wound up hurting my mouth with it. It was worth it, though, because it’s seriously so yummy.
Buttercrunch
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 TBS water
- 1 TBS corn syrup
- 3 oz semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Grease a lipped cookie sheet with butter or line it with a silicone baking mat and set it aside.
- In a medium sized saucepan, fitted with a candy thermometer, melt butter over medium high heat on the stovetop.
- Add in sugar, water, and corn syrup and stir constantly. Heat to a boiling. You will notice the mixture start to get thicker and darker in color. As soon as it hits 290 degrees, take it off the heat and pour it on to your prepared cookie sheet.
- I like to spread it with my spoon just a little bit so the pieces aren’t super thick. Let it cool and harden for about 3 minutes.
- Add chocolate chips right on top and let them sit for about 5 minutes. Come back and spread the chocolate evenly with a mini offset spatula.
- Refrigerate until completely hardened and cooled, about an hour.
- Break apart with a knife, or your hands, until you reach the desired size of pieces you want.