Knäck swedish Toffee
Every household in Sweden makes knäck at Christmas – little soft toffees. In my house, we flavour them lots of different ways, and use little petit-four cases. Just remember to use cases that are lined, or else they will stick. You can also give them a quick spritz of cake-release spray before filling with the toffee, just to make sure.
MAKES APPROX. 30 LITTLE TOFFEES
● 200g golden syrup
● 160g plus 1 tbsp caster sugar
● 200ml whipping cream
● 50g butter
● Sugar thermometer
● Petit-four cases
1. Place the syrup, sugar and whipping cream in a large saucepan – you will need to use a large saucepan as the mixture will bubble up a lot during cooking – and bring to the boil over a medium heat. You need to keep an eye on it all the time – I can’t emphasise this enough. The temperature needs to reach exactly 125°C/257°F. Along the way to that point, it will bubble – then, right before it hits 125°C/257°F, it will start to turn brown. This whole process can take 20–25 minutes, so make sure you won’t be distracted.
2. As soon as you have the exact temperature, take the pan off the heat and stir in the butter. If you leave it to cook for any longer, the finished toffee will be too hard. If you take it off the heat before 125°C/257°F, you end up with a fudge-style finish.
3. Leave it for a few minutes. At this stage, you can split it into several different bowls in order to add different flavourings, or you can simply portion it out and add flavours to the top of the warm toffee before it goes hard. I have not included quantities for the fillings here as tastes are different, but for a full recipe consider around 75g of nuts or seeds, and for spices, a few teaspoons should suffice.
4. When the mixture has cooled a little, pour into plastic piping bags or a pourer, and pipe into the little petit-four cases. Add the flavourings to the top, then leave to cool down and harden up.
FLAVOUR SUGGESTIONS
● Sesame seeds and flaked sea salt
● 2 tsp cocoa powder
● Chopped toasted almonds
● Chopped pistachios
● Pine nuts
● Liquorice powder
● Vanilla (add vanilla sugar and a pinch of sea salt to the hot toffee before portioning)