10 Oct Chocolate Almond Buttercrunch

If you’ve ever been to Kamers, you know that you are guaranteed to discover at least one beautiful or wondrous thing there. This year I discovered Buttercrunch.

My sister and I were tasting all the lovely samples at the confectionery corner, and found ourselves returning over and over to a nutty, crunchy sweet. After polishing off all the tasters, I felt the least I could do was purchase a box of these. That, and I needed a reference sample so that I could recreate this heavenly treat in my own kitchen.

I’ll be honest here – it took some trial and error until I was finally satisfied that I had achieved Buttercrunch perfection. Many a day was spent boiling sugar and checking temperatures until I got just the right texture. A texture that is hard to describe – although Buttercrunch is referred to as a toffee, it is not chewy. Rather, it is crunchy yet not teeth-breakingly hard like a boiled sweet. The butter used in the recipe results in a sort of soft crunch.

This unique texture combined with the deep caramel flavour makes for the most addictive sweet. And the joy of cracking the finished product into bite-size shards is extremely satisfying too. You’ll see!

Ingredients:

120g slivered almonds
225g good quality unsalted butter
200g white sugar
15ml liquid glucose*
45ml water
2,5ml salt
5ml vanilla extract
175g milk chocolate

Directions:

• Line a 20cm x 20cm baking tin with greaseproof paper.
• Place the almonds into a dry frying pan on a high heat to toast them. Swirl the pan frequently and as soon as they start to turn golden and smell toasty, pour the almonds onto a baking tray to cool (if you leave them in the pan they will continue to cook).
• Add the butter, sugar, glucose, water and salt to a small saucepan.
• Heat over a low heat until the sugar is dissolved, stirring constantly. Be patient, this takes time!
• Once all the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat to medium, stirring often, until the mixture starts to bubble. Once the mixture is boiling, stop stirring.
• Place a sugar thermometer in the mixture and heat until you reach 138°C. Remove from the heat and quickly stir in the vanilla extract and about 3/4 of the almonds. Pour into the prepared tin and tilt the pan to spread the mixture evenly.
• Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Finely chop the remaining almonds.
• Once the buttercrunch has cooled for a few minutes, sprinkle all the chocolate over the top.
• Leave to melt for a few minutes then use a palette knife to spread it evenly. Sprinkle the finely chopped toasted almonds on top.
• Allow the butter crunch to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for an hour to set it hard.
• Remove from the tin and break into bite-size pieces.
• Store in an airtight container for about 10 days.

* Available at baking stores