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Sticky Toffee

TLDRBWW

Too long; didn’t read - but will watch

Background

Cooking should be fun, following recipes is kinda boring. So I make it a point to read a recipe once and then wing stuff along the way, hoping to keep things edible while turning into interesting and exciting culinary destinations. I follow the hand-wavy way of cooking, as evidenced by the recipe below.

Manavi challenged me to make toffee, saying it is very simple to do

• boil sugar to caramelization
• add butter
• add cream

and you are done. So I set forth to do it. I also decided to log my progress along the way. This Sunday morning I started with the notion of making Caramel Toffee but ended up making Sticky Mango Toffee. Which tastes heavenly by the way, take my word for it. And the word of few of my chosen guinea pigs.

Cheatsheet

Stop here if all you wanted was the recipe

Detailed follow-along, mistakes welcome

Even before I started, mother was making a traditional new year’s festive dish called Chitranna - a tangy raw mango rice dish - which involved some grated raw mangos. Immediately I switched gears to make mango bite instead of toffee.

Grated Raw Mango

Two other ingredients and I have everything we need:

Sugar and Butter

Then I start to boil the sugar. I was warned not to add water, spoils the caramelization, but also I was worried about burning the sugar on naked flame, so I did a water bath boiler setup for it.

Double layer water bath or something. Yeah. I see MasterChef.

Stuff was not melting at all. Disappointment. Going to go direct flame but on low.

Risky direct flame method

Sugar kinda started getting sticky, started forming clumps. Excitement. Add a dollop of butter and stir, stir, stir. Then comes the clumpy mass stage, and more stirring and waiting brings the smooth mass stage. As of now we have a thick sugar syrup which the butter is doing something in. I think it makes it softy? Dunno. Is a nice texture though.

Syrupy base is now ready

Bring the raw mango! Add it in, stir vigourously. The goal is to vaporize most of the moisture content in the mango. Once I started stirring it in I did a quick taste check. It was just sweet, no tang. We needed more mango. Therefore I grated some more, added it in. Look at the bubbly sweet lava!

Oh it is lava by the way, like insanely hot. Don’t get it on your skin.

Tasty lava formation

For the next step I thought I will just drop spoonful of this stickiness on a plate and freeze it. But mother has tiny idli making dish, and she suggested we use it. Lovely! So I take it off the flame, add a couple spoons into each dimple and stick it in the deep freezer.

Remember to always keep a piece plate beside you while cooking, to place various minor utensils in.

Here’s how it looked before going into the freezer. Very pretty, if I say so myself.

What to do with this new found cooking skill?

I will aim for maximum fame. I will write a book with all my recipes and techniques and call it

• “The Handwavy Guide To Making Food”
  • That Sometimes Turns Out Super Delicious (but is always edible)”.

I will inform everyone once I publish it.

Buy multiple copies and support me.

Thanks.