Looking through my IT cupboard recently I came across an opened (but almost full) box of Thornton's "Special Toffee (Original)" which I had moved from my desk to stop the cat from eating too much of it.  Sadly, with a BB date of December  2019, and stored under distinctly sub-optimal conditions, and while continuing to look in perfect condition, the mouth-feel was now one of fudge rather than of toffee ...

With nothing to lose (I hate fudge), I researched how toffee was made, found that the optimal temperature was of the order of 150C, and set out to re-make the toffee using my halogen oven.  The toffee was in two main chunks, so I melted the first (in a clean Fray Bentos steak-and-kidney pie tin from a few nights ago), and once it was molten put the larger chunk on the top.  When it had all melted down I gave it a good stir, test-dropped a spoonful into cold water, then poured off the excess butter that had come out during the re-making process and left it to cool.  When I judged that it was firm enough to remove from the tin, I prised it out, put it in a plastic bag, and transferred it to the freezer.

I am delighted to report that it is now once again absolutely perfect toffee, and (in my opinion) even better than the original because it is now further caramelized.

** Phil.

Phil, I am fortunate to be old enough to remember Toffee Day at school. The day kids loved but mothers and teachers hated. All in the idea of fund raising, mothers would buy sugar and depending on their level of skill and how many pans they chose to sacrifice, the toffees were delivered to school to be sold to us with money also provided by the same mothers who'd already bought sugar and ruined pans.

We kids would then suck, crunch or chew toffee sugar all day and take home paper wrapped toffee prepared by other kid's mothers.  It was win, win for us and the dentists.  Some horrible mothers made cupcakes, although most were iced.

No matter how much I begged my mother she could never make proper stick- jaw toffee.  Stick-jaw was a semi-solid variety that would allow you to bite into it and then pull the main piece away from your face to arms length. The contents of your mouth immediately glued your upper and lower jaws together, hence the name.  I hated hard over-cooked brown toffee but would gladly take home a brown paper bag of gooey mess.

Incidentally, I quite like truffle.

Ah, stick-jaw toffee :  those were the days.  But re. truffle

My mistake. I don't know where truffle came from. I meant fudge.  I am also a big fan of Jersey Caramels.