Caffinara|Melanie Watts, Caffinara: Wake up to life

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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Toffee

Posted by Melanie at 15:41 0 comments

Nuts were a part of my childhood, every Christmas we had a large bowl of walnuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, almonds and a nutcracker to open them. Walnuts were a standard in cookie recipes and coconut was a close second. Peanut butter sandwiches were our favourite substitute for meat.

My innocent nutty life came to an abrupt end when I met Robert.

I offered him a cookie from my latest baking frenzy. I was surprised when he tentatively asked if it contained nuts. I had never heard of anyone being allergic to nuts. My first reaction was that he was making it up.

It wasn’t until after we were married that I realized I could no longer spread peanut butter on my toast, then use the same knife to spread jam on top if it. It meant no more peanut butter cookies since the smell of them baking, made him feel sick. It meant no more walnuts in my baking, no almonds in salads, no Christmas nuts, no Malaysian or Thai curries, they contain coconut, he’s allergic to that as well.

I’ve been piously avoiding nuts at home for twenty six years. I’m missing nuts more then ever this Christmas because I‘ve discovered homemade toffee.

First Lisa, over on get in the garden, raved about her English toffee so much I requested her recipe. she generously printed it on her December recipe page for me. Scroll down to the bottom.

Then Kathie over on Threadlines sent me her recipe and Molly over on Orangette has yet another variation.

I’ve made all three of them. We’ve managed to gobble up at least half of it. Even without the nuts it’s still delicious.

Labels: nuts, toffee