Chocolate-Peanut Buttercrunch Toffee by Annie Smithers

Chocolate-peanut buttercrunch toffee by Annie Smithers

Annie Smithers is one of Australia’s most highly regarded chefs, and one of the first to truly work paddock to plate. For more than 25 years she has cooked in the Macedon Ranges and Hepburn Spa region of Victoria.

Her restaurant, du Fermier, in the small village of Trentham, is a tiny place. Annie does all the cooking, baking baguettes each morning and writing a menu du jour around vegetables picked that day from her garden and meat from the surrounding farms.

Ingredients

225g toasted peanuts, chopped between fine and coarse
2 tablespoons water
115g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
A big pinch of salt
200g caster sugar
45g packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
140g Dominican Republic chocolate
Flaky sea salt

Method

1. Spread half the nuts into a rectangle about 20 x 25cm on an ungreased baking sheet.

2. In a medium, heavy saucepan fitted with a sugar thermometer, heat the water, butter, salt, and white and brown sugars. Cook, stirring gently if needed, until the thermometer reads 150°C. Have the vanilla and baking soda ready.

3. Take off the heat and stir in the baking soda and vanilla.

4. Pour straight over the nuts and spread with a small offset spatula. Sprinkle with a little flaky sea salt.

5. Scatter the chocolate over the top and leave for 2 minutes, then spread it into an even layer.

6. Sprinkle over the remaining nuts and press them in gently. Cool completely and break into pieces. Keeps in an airtight container for up to ten days.

Cooking Chocolate

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