Toffee 3 of 4

The Stirring.... Ok, it's all about state changes.... first the butter and the sugar don't mix at all(from previous post) and over a few minutes the two will combine and you kind of get this Foam like bubbly stuff.

Ok, I'm going to stop and talk about candy thermometers... I have 2, I hate them both. Nothing like a thermometer to screw up some toffee. Hard Crack is what we are going for..... These are the Candy states in order.... Soft Ball, Hard ball, Soft Crack, and Hard Crack.... all the ones below hard crack are a bunch of silly stuff like Caramels, and Nut Brittle, and divinity(which is fucking hard to do "Divinity", problem is in the end all you get in divinity(tastes like a bad marshmallow... But according to some it "Tastes like heaven"). There is only Toffee in Bob's world.... That's it... there is no substitute...

Ok Hard crack BTW is 300+ degrees, here in Utah you have to go to about 310 because of the altitude. Now the names of these candy states have to do with this:

What happens, when you put some of your confection in a glass of water with ice... Soft ball, hard ball, soft crack, hard crack. you taste it!!! hard crack shatters in your teeth, not shatters your teeth. but should literally smash into powder.

5 minutes of stirring.Ok, state 1 Soft Ball....(below) what starts happening is that the butter starts to separate out of the mix(much less foamy)... and you have to stir progressively harder to get the butter back into the mix.(it's probably more the fat from the butter... but ..)

State 2 hard ball (below) ok its very hard to keep the butter/fat in the mix. 15 minutes of stirring. This may give you some idea of how hard I'm stirring at this point(below)

Hand of Bob!!!... are you tired yet.... about half way done......