Sugar High Friday - Stuck on You

SHF Caramel
Originally uploaded by foodchronicles.

I have been thinking of what to do ever since I read what Debbie of Words to Eat By, chose to use caramel for this month's Sugar High Friday. My first choice was to do this entry, but I wasn't sure I could pull it off quickly enough after a day at work.

Talked to my sister this morning, she suggested homemade Samoas. you know those great Girl Scout Cookies with coconut and caramel. I am glad I didn't because Debbie's version looks so good! Mmmm.

So here we have the working girls version of Toffeefay candies. They were a favorite of mine in high school. I love caramel. I love hazlenuts. And I LOVE chocolate. Toffeefay (?) has an outside chocolate candy shell filled with chocolate hazlenut ganache, topped with a 'cap' of caramel.

So I started out formulating this in my head and took lots of shortcuts. I melted and tempered some chocolate I had in the cupboard. It's Peter's Newport - dark, semi-sweet - chocolate. Poured it in the molds and set it in the fridge to cool quickly, If you look carefully in the picture, you can see a shell that cracked coming out of the mold.

Then I grabbed some Nutella from the cupboard and filled a pastry bag. Piped it in the chocolate shells almost to the top, leaving just enough room for the caramel top.

The caramel top I chose was Mrs. Richardson's caramel topping. Next time I do this I promise to make real caramel, but I just didn't have the time today. Still, I scooped a half teaspoon of the caramel out and carefully loaded it onto the center of the hazlenut cream so it would spread evenly over the top. Voila! Instant Toffeefay!

It's a sweeeeeet treat. 1 or 2 is plenty. I have already heard from two family members that they turned out great. I still haven't tasted them, but I'm headed to the kitchen right after I post this, for a simple, sweet, dessert.