Monday, March 7, 2011

sweets for dear ole' Dad


My father has a huge sweet tooth.


Particularly for chocolate, ice cream
and anything involving coffee.

Growing up, some of his favorite
go-to "midnight snacks" included:

Broiled Cinnamon Sugar Toast with plenty o' butter

Tart, Lemon Sorbet with Shards of Dark Chocolate

and my personal favorite...

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream with
a Splash of Milk and Coffee Grounds

He also loves obnoxiously-tart confections found in vintage candies such as lemon drops and cherry sours.

For his birthday last March, I baked him a delectable Cocoa Rum Bundt Cake with an Espresso Glaze to accompany a build-your-own BLT bar.



This rich bundt was moist, not-too-sweet and layered with flavor-- a definite party pleaser.

This March, he celebrated his 63rd Birthday and I wanted to make him a whimsical, sweet treat.

Tied for time to make a multi-layered cake or roll out butter-laced crust for a pie, I decided on a tempting candy perfect alone or crumbled atop ice cream:


Chocolate & Salted Peanut Toffee


adapted from Epicurious

4 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole roasted and salted peanuts
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Line a large, lipped sheet pan with parchment paper.
Set aside.

Attach a candy thermometer
to the side of a 4-5 quart heavy pot.

Bring butter, sugar and salt to boil over medium high heat, whisking until smooth then boil, stirring occasionally until mixture is golden brown and registers 300 degrees (hard crack stage) on the candy thermometer approximately 15-20 minutes.

Immediately stir in half of peanuts, then carefully pour hot toffee into center of parchment-lined pan. Spread with spatula and let stand one minute. Sprinkle chocolate evenly on top and let stand 2-3 minutes to melt. Spread chocolate evenly with spatula then top with a sprinkling of remaining peanuts. Freeze until chocolate is firm and break into pieces.

Whether it be pie or cake,
cookies or candies,
custards or ice creams,

Share some sweets with a loved one!

Photobucket

2 comments:

sammyss said...

You forgot Shock Tarts. Also, add a little crunchy all-natural peatut butter to the sorbet or ice cream. Advice to all fathers: send your kid to culinary school. It'll pay off in spades.

Weekend Cowgirl said...

Your dad is lucky!!!! Looks really good.