Today is my birthday. I am a woman of a certain age and I think it is worthy of celebrating, so I made one of my favorite candies, chocolate-covered toffee, with a hit of coffee. I never buy Health Heath Bars, but every year I manage to convince my boys to give me them from their Halloween bags. This year was no different. Then on my travels for the book tour I ended up with the ultimate version, which has completely ruined me to the Hershey’s product. Not so sweet, a powerful kick of coffee and really lovely bittersweet chocolate. The maker is Poco Dolce and Samantha at Omnivore Books in San Fran turned me onto them after our book signing there. I love her and hate her for that! I bought several varieties and all of them were delicious, but the little bag of coffee toffee was like a bag of chips, you can’t eat just one. I brought them home and considered not sharing with my husband, but after leaving him at home for 9 days with the boys I figured it was the least I could do to share my candies. Big mistake. He ate them all. Well not really, but they were gone. I had only one choice, make my own. It is surprisingly easy and perfect for wrapping up as holiday gifts or just hiding in your desk drawer, or both.
Every year my husband and my boys set off on the loving task of baking my birthday cake. This year my husband outdid himself and made a devil’s food cake with cream cheese icing and a fresh raspberry filling. You can see his lovely work at the end of the post.
Below you can see me make the recipe step by step and you’ll find the recipe at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!
How to Make Chocolate Covered Coffee Toffee
Prepare a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment or wax paper
In a medium-sized heavy-bottomed saucepan, with a Candy Thermometer
Continue to cook and stir the mixture until it reads 275 on the candy thermometer.
The mixture will be much thicker. Stir constantly until it reaches 315 degrees, which will happen pretty quickly. Remove it from the heat and stir until very smooth, just a few seconds.
Pour the toffee onto the prepared cookie sheet.
Using a spatula spread the toffee out into a 1/16-inch thick rectangle. try to keep it as even as possible. Work quickly because the toffee will set fast.
Using a Pastry Wheel
You should get about 60 pieces. Again work quickly so the toffee doesn’t set before you are done.
Allow the toffee to sit until it is room temperature and then break apart the pieces.
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler until perfectly smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to just above room temperature. If the chocolate is too hot it will run off the toffee and not give you a nice coating, if it is too cold it will be too thick to work with.
Set up a second cookie sheet with a sheet of parchment or wax paper.
Drop a piece of the toffee into the chocolate. If the chocolate is a touch warm the toffees may crackle a bit, but that is fine.
Using a fork flip the toffee over to coat the other side.
lift the covered toffee from the chocolate and shake gently to allow the excess to fall away and any large air bubbles to come to the surface. As the chocolate cools down the air bubbles may have to be popped by hand. once this starts to happen, just return the chocolate to the double boiler and reheat for a minute to soften the chocolate slightly.
In order to get a nice smooth bottom, without a bunch of excess chocolate (otherwise known as a “foot”) you want to scrape the bottom of the fork on the edge of the bowl before laying it to set on the parchment.
Lay them on the parchment until they set up.
Continue dipping until they are all covered in chocolate. Allow them to sit out in a cool spot to set up. Because we are not tempering the chocolate (that is another post) you may want to set them in the refrigerator for a few minutes until they are firm.
You will have a bit of chocolate left over so you can add some decoration to the tops if you wish with a parchment bag. Allow the decorations to set up and then serve or
Fill decorative Treat Bag
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound 2 sticks/226g unsalted butter
- 1 cup 200g granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons 75g brown sugar
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons 90ml water
- 1 tablespoon 15ml molasses
- 3 teaspoons instant coffee powder I like Starbucks VIA
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 pound bittersweet or semisweet chocolate melted and cooled to just above room temperature
Instructions
- Prepare a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment or wax paper.
- In a medium sized heavy-bottomed sauce pan, with a Candy Thermometer attached, bring all the ingredients, except for the chocolate, to a boil over medium-low heat. Continue to cook and stir the mixture until it reads 275 degrees F on the candy thermometer.
- The mixture will be much thicker. Stir constantly until it reaches 315 degrees, which will happen pretty quickly. Remove it from the heat and stir until very smooth, just a few seconds.
- Pour the toffee onto the prepared cookie sheet.
- Using a spatula spread the toffee out into a 1/16-inch thick rectangle. try to keep it as even as possible. Work quickly because the toffee will set fast.
- Using a Pastry Wheel or pizza cutter, VERY GENTLY (you don't want to cut so deep that it actually reaches the bottom or you may destroy your silpat) score the toffee into bite sized pieces.
You should get about 60 pieces. Again work quickly so the toffee doesn't set before you are done. Allow the toffee to sit until it is room temperature and then break apart the pieces. - Melt the chocolate over a double boiler until perfectly smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to just above room temperature. If the chocolate is too hot it will run off the toffee and not give you a nice coating, if it is too cold it will be too thick to work with.
- Set up a second cookie sheet with a sheet of parchment or wax paper. Drop a piece of the toffee into the chocolate. If the chocolate is a touch warm the toffees may crackle a bit, but that is fine. Using a fork flip the toffee over to coat the other side.
- Lift the covered toffee from the chocolate and shake gently to allow the excess to fall away and any large air bubbles to come to the surface. As the chocolate cools down the air bubbles may have to be popped by hand. Once this starts to happen, just return the chocolate to the double boiler and reheat for a minute to soften the chocolate slightly.
- In order to get a nice smooth bottom, without a bunch of excess chocolate (otherwise known as a "foot") you want to scrape the bottom of the fork on the edge of the bowl before laying it to set on the parchment. Lay them on the parchment until they set up.
- Continue dipping until they are all covered in chocolate. Allow them to sit out in a cool spot to set up. Because we are not tempering the chocolate you may want to set them in the refrigerator for a few minutes until they are firm.
- You will have a bit of chocolate left over so you can add some decoration to the tops if you wish with a parchment bag. Allow the decorations to set up and then serve.
Thanks Graham, it is the best cake ever. I love you!
Just made Coffee Toffee Pecan Pie, which was outrageous. Sooooo, this is right up my alley- may roll this all in chopped toasted pecans. Love using the Via coffee, also.
Happy Birthday!
happy birthday!!
Happy Birthday!!!!
Happy Belated Birthday!
Belated Happy Birthday to you Zoe!! You’ve got quite a catch there, to make you your birthday cake 🙂
The toffee looks delicious. I’m scared of sugar, so no making this, but owuld love to eat it 😛
Belated birthday greetings Zoe. I’m very behind on blog reading. I hope you had a wonderful day. The toffees look divine.
I hope you are having a fabulous time on your cookbook tour!
I love the step-by step. This is absolutely my favorite kind of candy. Never have attempted it myself. btw… I’ve destroyed a silpat with a cutter before. guess I wasn’t careful enough!
Rather belated birthday wishes, Zoe.
Chocolate and cake! A birthday couldn’t get better, I suppose.
happy belated birthday to you. of course I’m late.
I just made bacon & toffee scones, but now wishing I had used some coffee toffee. fabulous!
Hi Mandy,
These are a great treat to make for Christmas. You can store them for a long time, at least a week, if not more. You will need to find a very dry, cool place for them. I even stored them in the refrigerator for several days, very well wrapped and they tasted great! One thing to keep in mind is that when you do that the chocolate may bloom (the fat rises to the top and it turns milky in color), but it still tastes great!!!
Given that you have the right sized pot it should double really well!
Enjoy, Zoë
And,
how long will these keep?
ie how far in advance of giving it to someone can you make them?
thanks!
Beautiful candies — and a very happy belated birthday to you!!
I just made these today and they are fantastic…
I did not have all sweetened baking chocolate, and had to use part unsweetened, threw in some sugar, and it still worked.
My question is can you double this batch? I am thinking ahead to Christmas giving.
thanks,
Mandy
(Belated Birhtday wishes..
and I love the new HBin5 book and that web site, this is my first time baking from this one!)
I was drooling with this post! This will be a perfect nice gift for my friends this Christmas. They have this sweet tooth; they are going to love this!
Hi Mei,
Thank you so much for trying the recipe and letting me know how it went! I’m thrilled that you enjoyed them. I just found a stash that my husband hid and have been sneaking them all day! I guess I should be happy he hid them or I’d eat them ALL!
Zoë
They taste delicious!! And to the one who said she was addicted to Daim (from IKEA), well get started because they tasted EXCATLY like that. I did not expect the toffee to get hard, so it was a nice surprise for me that they are crispy…uhmmmmm!
wow, these toffee bites looks just perfect!
and i love the flavors combination, sounds amazing
i have to make these!
Happy Birthday! I hope it was as wonderful and delicious as your pictures. Here’s to another wonderful year! Thank you for providing so many of us with your (and Jeff’s) wonderful bread books.
Happy B-day Zoe ! So nice that your husband and boys take time to make you a birthday cake, the sweetest thing ! I am sure you can appreciate that, as you do the same for them with so much love.
Zoe,
Your recipes and techniques are amazing. Everything I made with your guidance has been a success !! Wish you all the best!! Happy Birthday!!
Happy Birthday! I have been dreaming about making candy after successfully making the cashew brittle in The Craft of Baking. Now I’m going to have to try toffee. Thanks!
OK- I am making the toffee tonight! I may have to make this for Christmas presents-thanks for the recipe!
hi there!I’m quite new to the blog!congratulations-lovely recipes(I also love your book)
I have a question.I can’t find molases in any of our local super markets(maybe it’s not that common here in greece)so I was wondering if I could substitute it with some other ingredient….
I hope you had a fantastic birthday, Zoe! I adore chocolate covered toffee…and I am totally drooling over these right now. And your boys did a fabulous job on the cake 🙂
(p.s…thanks you for taking the time to comment on our PPBrioche posts…it meant so much!)
Happy belated birthday, dear Zoe! And the toffee… Oh my goodness! I wish I could received such delicious goodie bad. 😉