Happy New Year and New Toffee Recipe!

 This year I checked out every single Christmas decorating and cooking book I could find from the library. In one of them I found this great recipe for Saltine cracker toffee. I am not lying to you when I tell you I have eaten half of the cookie sheet of this today. Do I feel guilty? Heck, yes. Am I still hankering for the other half of the pan? HECK, YES!

You need the recipe for this so that you will also be one with me in the nearly-blasphemous love of this candy with its crispy crunchy cracker goodness:

Ingredients:

Enough crackers to fill a cookie sheet - I used 40-50
2 cups butter (use the good stuff, don't be a Scrooge)
2 cups brown sugar
3 cups chocolate chips
chopped nuts, if you want. I used 1/2 cup over half the pan.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F
Place the crackers on the cookie sheet in a single layer.

In a saucepan, bring the butter and the brown sugar to a full, rolling boil and let it boil for 3 minutes.

Pour the toffee over the crackers and put the cookie sheet into the oven and bake for 5 minutes.

Remove from oven. The toffee will be boiling on the cookie sheet - beware that you don't burn yourself taking it out of the oven.

Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. Then sprinkle the chocolate chips over the surface. They will melt in a few minutes enough for you to spread them around in a smooth layer. At this point, you may choose to sprinkle the nuts on top.

Let cool until completely firm and breakable. Store in an airtight container. I'm not bothering with that because it's easier to break off a piece if I just leave it on the counter. I figure that 2 cups of butter is about 1 pound. I can't possibly gain more than that, right? :)

In other news, here is my desk after the holiday madness of ornament making. My goal this year is to clean it off eventually.

Happy New Year!