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Molasses toffee

Mmmmm…!
I blew my own mind by accidentally making this the other week. It’s been a while since I got so excited about anything.
It tasted EXACTLY like the toffee I used to get all the time on my way home from school as a teenager.

This is the easiest thing ever to whip up for yourself when you fancy something sweet. It’s also the perfect way for kids to feel like they’re absolutely not being short-changed for being born into a family that won’t let them stuff their faces with sugar on the way home from school every day – if they even go to school.
(And for anyone out there thinking, ‘Well you did it & it didn’t do you any harm’… Yes it did. Sugar is more addictive than most hardcore drugs & it took me 6 years to get off the stuff & get by body chemistry back on track… Natural alternatives like honey, maple & molasses are of course also very sweet, but they don’t tax the body anywhere near as much because they can be recognised & utilised a lot more easily, & they also contain nutrients – this is especially true of molasses.)

So after my excitement of having made toffee, I then discovered a neglected jar of molasses at the back of my cupboard & had the genius idea of making treacle toffee… Which also works amazingly & is in my opinion completely on a par if not better than the likes of Thornton’s.
I know, these statements are the height of arrogance, but seriously – try it & you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Plain toffee has only 3 ingredients, & the molasses version has 4.
You can use some honey in place of the maple syrup if you want, but it will be a much stickier toffee. Maple makes the hard, crunchy kind that lasts for ages.
I tend to use goats butter because I prefer the flavour, but this does work well with coconut oil.

1 tablespoon butter/ coconut oil
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon molasses
Sea/ Himalayan salt to taste

• Line some kind of tin or tray with baking paper first, because when it’s ready to pour you need to do it quickly.
• Put the maple syrup & butter/ coconut oil in a pan & turn up to a medium-high heat (I use 4 out of 6).
• Stir constantly, especially when it starts bubbling.
• Add in plenty of salt & taste before it gets too hot.
• When you’re happy with the flavour, just keep stirring.
• It will take approximately 4-5 minutes, & the main way to tell when it’s done is by smell. It will start to smell ever so slightly burnt & as soon as this happens, pour it into your tin immediately.
I’d recommend making ‘plain’ toffee a few times first (recipe is the same as this one but replace the molasses with maple). This is because the molasses already has a slight burnt tinge, so it’s more difficult to tell what’s going on.
Another thing to look out for is that it can start to split. This happens mostly with the coconut oil & isn’t a problem, it just means that it’s almost done.
• Put the tin in the fridge, then when it’s hardened up, smash it into pieces & enjoy!
If you make your own ice cream it makes a lovely addition, as it somehow melts & creates delicious little pockets of goo…

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