Pecan Molasses Toffee

This, by far, is my favorite, most sinful treat to make during the holidays. Once I make this, I have to hurry up and get everything else done so I can get it all out of the house. It's that dangerous.

Some people are intimidated by making toffee, but if you have a candy thermometer, it's a piece of cake.

Here are the ingredients: molasses, brown sugar, granulated sugar, water, cinnamon, BUTTER, pecans (they're hiding in the background) and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Did I mention the TOWER OF BUTTER? That's a pound and a quarter of butter. There's no way to get around it, if you want to make toffee, the two basic ingredients are butter and sugar.

It's a fact.

You should see us shopping for ingredients in the months prior to Thanksgiving. We look like very unhealthy eaters with our ginormous bags of chocolate chips, pecans, and vats o' butter.

Yep, we shop in bulk. That means we regularly have to use the food scale when baking.

Are you ready to make some toffee?

I implore you, before you even begin, make sure all your ingredients are at the ready and measured out.

Everything.

Once the Toffee Vesuvius starts, you can't be hunting for your cinnamon.

In fact, it gets so hairy at the end, that I have to place my 2 cups of pecans and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon right on the parchment paper lined jelly roll pan, or else I'll forget to mix them in before spreading the toffee out.

I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten this step, and you cannot, I repeat, cannot, mix these ingredients in once the toffee hits that cookie sheet. It's impossible.

I have tried. No lie.

The start is easy. Just melt that butter and add the sugars (yes, plural), water and molasses.

Heat that buttery bliss up and get it real angry-like.

270-280 degrees angry.

Then take it off the heat pronto, and mix in the nuts and cinnamon.

Then dump it all onto your jelly roll pan.

This part is cool because the toffee leaves the pan as a single unit. It's like watching a snake slither on home.

You need to be quick here and start spreading the toffee out until it covers the entire jelly roll pan.

It starts setting up right away and you can feel it resisting.

It should look like this.

Next, sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the toffee and let them sit and melt for one minute.

Then take a metal spoon and start spreading the chocolate over the surface of the toffee with the back of the spoon.

In no time, it will look like this.

Next, sprinkle the remaining pecan pieces over the chocolate and press them gently into the surface.

There is no need to wear food prep gloves for this step, as it is much easier to lick your hands clean without them.

And plastic tastes nasty.

Chill the sin for a couple hours and break it into pieces. Then hide it from all your friends and enjoy it like a bad addiction.

And here's that recipe card. Enjoy!