Candy Making: Chocolate Brittle Surprise

For Fathers Day this year I sent my dad a care package in the mail. I have tried mailing baked goods before but it turned out to be a tad disastrous. This time I decided to make candy because candy lasts longer than cookies (fingers crossed). I have yet to receive confirmation that the package has made it to its destination but I am hoping all is well.

I began with ShanaLee’s Chocolate Brittle Surprise recipe at allrecipes.com. Like many others I looked at the directions and ingredients and thought to myself, crackers in a dessert? What the? Yet when I read the reviews people raved about this recipe and it looked easy so I gave it a shot. I am so glad I did!

Yup, that is matzah in the top left-hand corner of my baking tray. The recipe requires 35 soda crackers and I did not have enough so I used a big piece of matzah instead, it fit perfectly so why not? My crackers were also salted but then I figured that was OK since I was using unsalted butter.

You cover a baking sheet with foil and I recommend only putting it around the crackers and lifting it up so nothing spills on to the rest of the tray, giving it a border. Line with crackers. Microwave butter on high for 2 minutes. Add brown sugar and stir. Nuke for a total of 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Pour on top of the crackers and bake in a preheated 350F oven for 17 minutes so it gets dark but does not burn. I opened the oven a lot because mine was getting dark pretty fast so I wanted it to cool off a little. Burned sugar is miserable! I kept an eagle eye on it.

The crackers soak up a lot of the bubbling sugary goo. Once you take it out of the oven cover with 2 cups of chocolate chips (I used a mixture of milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate). Let sit for a couple of minutes and then spread with a spatula and top with nuts, I used chopped pecans.

This sinfully delicious treat tastes just like a Skor chocolate bar, one of my favourites! So crunchy and melty at the same time. This recipe is so easy and delicious I happily give it five out of five wooden spoons. I hope my dad agrees!

This was the perfect recipe to begin my candy-making Fathers Day journey. No candy thermometer was involved and you used a microwave, not your stovetop. Always take care though, candy making is treacherous so always have some ice water on hand just in case OK? That said, if I were to try and give any candy recipe a shot, this is the one I would recommend.