Mom's Nut Rocca (a.k.a. Toffee)

If you live at sea level, or just not clear up on a mountain, this stuff is great. And relatively easy. If you do live up on a mountain, can you tell me how to get it to the right temperature?! I made it, it tastes good, but it has a different color and it's much chewier than my mom's. So I'm blaming it on the altitude. I pretty much blame everything on the altitude. My dry skin, my flat hair, headaches...but I digress!

Ok. You need a candy thermometer, but those are inexpensive at any market. However, my mom says that the metal ones are the best because they don't break. I couldn't find one at our store, but maybe if check a kitchen store, you might have some luck. Everything else, I'll bet you have in your pantry, so try it! It's fun to make candy and it's impressive. Have fun!

Here's the recipe, in my mom's own words (parenthetical commentary provided by yours truly).

What you need
2 cups butter (real butter)
2 cups sugar
2 Tbs. light corn syrup
1/3 cup water
1 pkg. milk chocolate chips (12 oz.)
1 cup finely chopped, toasted nuts (any kind will do, I'm partial to pecans. Must be my Southern heritage.)

1. Line a 15 x 10 x 1 inch baking pan with heavy duty foil, extending over edges.

2. In a 4-5 quart sauce pan, melt butter. Stir in sugar, syrup and water. Cook over medium-high heat to boiling, stirring till sugar is dissolved. Avoid splashing up on the sides of your pan.

3. Clip you candy thermometer to the pan. Be sure bulb or bottom of thermometer is well covered and not touching bottom of pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently till thermometer registers 290 degrees, soft crack stage. This should take about 15 minutes. (Now, if you use a 4 qt. pan, like I did, your mixture is going to reach the tip top of the pan, and your heart is going to be in your throat imagining all that sticky corn syrup spilling out onto your stove. So just stir like crazy, gently though, and it will all be good. If you have a gas range, you may want to start out slower than med. heat.) The mixture will turn golden brown right at the last. (That's one way to know it's done. If it's still butter yellow, it's not done and will turn out the color of wax if taken off at this point. Trust me, I know.)

4. Remove thermometer. Pour into prepared pan; spread evenly. Cool 5 minutes, or until top is just set. Sprinkle on your chocolate chips and let set 2 minutes. Spread with a spatula till all toffee is coated with chololate. Top with nuts, press into chocolate. Cool several hours or till set. If necessary, place in fridge. (Mom sets it outside, covered and safe from the squirrels. My parents live in the woods. I don't know if a towel would keep it safe from a bear....hmmm.)

5. Holding foil, lift candy out of the pan. Break into pieces. To store, layer candy between sheets of waxed paper.

Makes about 2 1/2 pounds.

Doesn't that sound wonderful? Here's the way it came out for me. Remember, though, I'm at 8,000+ ft. in altitude and that just does funny things to baked goods.

Pretzel Nugget Truffles

The holidays are upon us! Get out your mixers! Preheat those ovens! Let's bake! Actually, this recipe is a no-cook. You've got to love that!

I am so excited about these little goodies. They are not my creation, I found them in a Rachel Ray calendar (I love her. Have I told you that? Recently?), thought they were too wonderful not to share with anyone who does not subscribe, so I'm posting them here.

On to it!

What you need

1 bag soft caramels (14 oz.)
1 bag pretzel nuggets (10 oz.)
12 oz. dark chocolate, finely chopped, OR any equivalent (I used the 60% cocoa bittersweet chips I had on hand)
2 cups nuts (your choice, I used pecans), toasted and finely chopped

First, toast your nuts in a pan or oven. Watch them, they burn easily. Need to know how to do this? Just toss the amount you want in a dry skillet, stirring or tossing every now and then until they give off a nice aroma (they will smell like pecan brittle. Mmm, my mom makes that every year). Take skillet off burner and allow the nuts to cool slightly before chopping them. Chop them finely or you'll have big chunks on your truffles. Or, don't chop finely if you like big chunks!



Unwrap the caramels and, using a rolling pin, roll each one out into a long oval shape. Unless you're completely buff and work out several times a week, I would suggest rolling 3-4 out, roll up your pretzel, then roll out 3-4 more caramels, etc. It takes a lot of arm strength, and I'm no muscle-lady. Not even close.

I thought these sort of looked like snails. If I didn't lose anyone with that analogy.....

These sort of reminded me of pig-in-a-blankets. Again, if you're still with me.........

After you've rolled out all your caramels and rolled up your pretzel nuggets, melt your chocolate. You can use a double broiler, or the microwave (which is what I used). If using the microwave, only cook at 30 second intervals and stir in between, even if doesn't look like it's cooked at all. It doesn't take very long, only about a total of 1 1/2 minutes.

Now, get your assembly area all ready. Line a baking sheet with wax paper and set next to your bowl of nuts, bowl of chocolate and caramel wrapped pretzel nuggets. Toss a few nuggets into the bowl of chocolate, cover it completely in chocolate, and use a fork to lift it out. Tap off the excess chocolate. Toss this into the chopped nuts to coat. Place on the wax paper. Repeat with the rest of the nuggets. If you can, let these guys rest for 3 hours, but I can tell you from personal experience, they're ready before this!

Gorgeous!