“This tastes like the bomb!”
“I have to have that recipe.”
“WHAT did you add? This is dangerous!”
“Please send more!!”
Welcome to the world of my sage toffee. I make it every year through the holiday season. It’s a perfect hostess gift. It’s fun to package up and send to friends and family afar. I’ve had many, many requests for this recipe so here it is, my gift to you.
First things first. I originally got this recipe from a relative (looking at you, Linda in Arizona!) who is a phenomenal chef. Hers was loaded with peanuts. It was addicting and lasted one evening. Seriously. Browned butter and sugar confection with chocolate? How can you go wrong? She kindly shared her recipe with me and I gave it a Spice Sherpa twist.
Here is SAGE TOFFEE in all its unadulterated, sugary glory. Rock out.
What you need:
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup light corn syrup
- 1 cup salted butter
- 2 large Hershey bars (4.4 oz. each).
- 1 Tbs. of coconut oil
- A candy thermometer. Yes, a real one. If you don’t have one most grocery stores carry them. They’re not fancy, complicated, nor expensive.
- Your favorite playlist. (You’re going to be stirring for about 20 minutes. Might as well enjoy it!)
What you do:
- Grease a large cookie sheet with sides.
- Spread your rubbed dried sage across the bottom. About 2-3 tablespoons worth. Tip: hold it about 5″ above the sheet and sprinkle it. This way it avoids getting too clumpy.
Sprinkled sage toffee in a greased cookie sheet for toffee.
In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, heat sugar corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water to boiling, stirring occasionally. Stir in the butter. Set candy thermometer in place and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until temperature reaches 300°F degrees. This takes quite awhile, around 20 minutes. Be VERY careful because this mixture is hot, hot, hot!
It will get very frothy and a toasted color to it as it gets closer to being done. But go by the temperature, not your eyeballs.
Once the mixture has reached 300°F pour over the sage taking caution not to burn yourself. The mixture will spread on its own. Note: this will look like a nightmare to clean. It isn’t. Warm water dissolves the hardened sugar right out of the pan. Plus it’s fun to break the fragments off the spatula.
In a small but heavy saucepan break up the chocolate bars and add the oil. Heat on low, very slowly until chocolate is shiny and smooth. I turn the heat off just before the last of the chocolate has melted to avoid burning the chocolate.
Pour over the toffee mixture and smooth with a spatula or knife.
chocolate spread over sage toffee.
I put it in a cold room in our basement to cool for several hours. I find the chocolate adheres better to the toffee this way. You can put it in the fridge but in my experience when you go to break it, the chocolate kind of peels off easily. But that’s me. Experiment for what works best.
When cool, break it into pieces and package it up for gifts. Or not. Enjoy!
Wouldn’t you like to open a box and find this?
Ready to go!
