Sugar Savvy

Over the course of my life, I have taken in no small amount of toffee – of the butternut crunch genre.  From Almond Roca to Lula’s, to See’s -  I rarely miss an opportunity to sample an English, California, or whatever they want to name it, nut and butter based toffee, coated with chocolate and then more nuts.

I’ve liked it cheap (Heath and Skor Bars); I adore it chi-chi (Valerie Confections, Cary’s).  I have loved homemade versions; beginning with a toffee “assignment” handed down by my 8th grade “Holiday Baking” Home-Ec teacher, right up to a particularly phenomenal bag from a farmers’ market in Seattle that I recently received as gift. Sometimes English toffee is great, sometimes it is addictive and transcendent.  But even at its most base and crude level, it is pretty great stuff.  Let’s just say I’ve never spit out a piece of toffee.

Having said all that, Enstrom’s Dark Chocolate Almond Toffee might be the best I’ve ever met.  It is, at least, in the top three (along with that stuff from the Farmers’ Market  - that was also really exceptional. It’s called Pete’s Perfect Toffee  - but has no website that I can find. I think it might only be available at The Ballard Farmers’ Market.)

The sample of Enstrom’s that I received was one of the “toffee petites,” with which I certainly have no gripes.  However, if you are inclined to purchase this product, I recommend the box of toffee instead. The box holds massive, charmingly irregular slabs, which may initially appear foreboding and slate-like. Instead, they yield to the tooth and crumble tenderly upon first bite, releasing the full-bodied buttery sweetness and rich toasted almond flavor.  The chocolate coating is almost superfluous, but in a good way.  Don’t get me wrong, I welcome the dark Guittard chocolate, thick, smooth and even slightly smokey. But I wouldn’t send it away if this toffee showed up at the table covered in milk chocolate, or even unenrobed and naked. In fact, I have happily consumed the milk chocolate version (also a recent gift from someone who knows my fondness for Enstrom’s but not necessarily my non-fondness for milk chocolate.  What I’m saying is, that this junk is so fantastic, the chocolate is secondary.)

I do not bother mail-ordering candy all that often; there’s more than enough at my fingertips than I can usually manage.  But if you are half the fan of toffee that I am, Enstrom’s, is indeed worth the trouble.

Top photo courtesy of enstrom.com

Second photo courtesy of thenibble.com