Macadamia, coconut, honey and vanilla caramel toffee

INTRODUCTION

So, this is becoming a staple in our house/business/life. It makes a fabulous gift and keeps well (ha ha) if you have a fairly dry enviroment – mostly, caramel / sugar doesn’t take kindly to humid surroundings, it goes sticky.

Bearing that all in mind, it’s a pleasure to make if you have a thermometer to gauge the EXACT temperature, the degrees really do matter here and a thermometer is what will make it easy. You can certainly play with the flavours, I love macadamia nuts as they don’t need to be roasted to elevate their fabulousness.

I tweaked the recipe from the original @Yotam and @Helen Goh from @Ottolenghi, single cream is all that is needed, the additional fat content of our double cream in South Africa meant the caramel simply didn’t set, let alone reach a chewy consistency.

INGREDIENTS 

160g macadamia nuts

70g unsweetened coconut flakes

100g unsalted butter

280ml  cream

100g runny honey

100g liquid glucose

160g soft brown sugar

Scraped seeds from a vanilla pod

¼ tsp flaky sea salt ( Maldon)

Makes 18 or more if cut smaller

Method

Preheat the oven 150’C, line a 20cm square tin with baking paper

Toast the nuts for about 7 mins until golden brown

Spread the coconut out on a sheet and bake about 2 mins, until just beginning to turn brown – remove and cool.

Lightly crush the coconut with your hands

For the caramel

Melt the butter and add the honey, glucose, sugar, vanilla and salt

Stir until combined, then increase the heat to medium

Bring to the boil – resist the urge to stir !

123-124’C – firm ball stage – remove from the heat and add the rest of the ingredients

Pour into the lined tin and allow to cool for an hour or so before cutting into pieces