Today’s Spotlight is on Buttercrunch.

There are two kinds of buttercrunch, one is Buttercrunch Toffee:

Buttercrunch toffee is a sweet, buttery toffee coated in milk chocolate and ground almonds. The nuts cook into the toffee until they’re toasty, adding flavor and nuance to the candy blend.

The other one is Buttercrunch Lettuce:

Buttercrunch lettuce is a leafy type of lettuce, as opposed to a head lettuce. It has crisp, dark green leaves with a tinge of red at the edge of some leaves. It also has a yellowish white “heart” at the center, where the leaves haven’t been exposed to the sun yet and so are “blanched”. It forms a tight little rosette of soft, dark green, upward-facing leaves surrounding a tender, pale center. The small hearts don’t become bitter in hot weather. Buttercrunch lettuce has a buttery velvety texture. It’s used in recipe applications such as salads, sandwiches, wraps, and green juices. Buttercrunch lettuce is a good source of vitamin A and phytonutrients.

 

We will let you decide which one the spotlight is on today.

History

Toffee was invented in the early 19th century. The first known recipe for toffee appeared in an English cookbook published in 1825. The recipe described it as a boiled sugar candy with butter and vinegar added.

Toffee likely originated in Wales and became popular across Britain and Europe because of the abundance of butter and imported sugar. The Oxford English Dictionary first mentioned the word “toffee” in 1825.

The word “toffee” may have originated from the word “taffya”, a cheap Caribbean rum that was often used to flavor candies. Another theory is that “toffee”‘s earlier spelling, “taffy” or “taffy”, referred to its chewy toughness.

 

Here’s some information about butternut:

• The nut is popularly used in New England for making maple-butternut candy.
• Early settlers used fruit husks and inner bark to make orange or yellow dye and root bark for a laxative.
• The outer bark was used to make teas to treat dysentery and toothaches.

 

Here is a Butternut Toffee Recipe for you to try:

Ingredients

• 400 g light brown sugar (2 cups packed / 14oz)
• 450 g unsalted butter (4 sticks / 2 cups)
• 1 ⅓ cups flaked almonds (or roughly chopped almonds)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 150 g milk chocolate, roughly chopped (5.3oz)
• 150 g dark (50% or 70%) chocolate, roughly chopped (5.3oz)

 

Instructions

1. PREP: Line a 9×13-inch baking sheet / cookie sheet with baking paper and get all your ingredients measured out and ready.
2. MELT: Place the sugar and butter in a heavy based saucepan over low-medium heat and stir until it is well combined, and the mixture starts to bubble.
3. LOW BOIL: Let it bubble away on a low boil stirring quite regularly so that it doesn’t burn, for around 8-10 minutes until it reaches 145C / 295F on a candy thermometer. (See notes)
4. ADD INS: Remove from heat. Add salt and 1 cup of the flaked almonds and stir well to combine.
5. INTO TIN: Pour straight into the baking tin. Allow it to cool for around 10 minutes, while you prepare the chocolate.
6. MELT THE CHOCOLATE in the microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring well between each, until JUST melted.
7. BLOT THE TOFFEE with paper towel to remove excess grease, then pour the chocolate over the top of the hot toffee. Spread with a spatula into an even layer (an offset spatula makes this very simple). Sprinkle with remaining almond pieces.
8. LET IT SET at room temperature for half an hour, then put into the fridge for 2-3 hours.
9. Enjoy!

Here are some tips for making buttercrunch toffee:

• Use white granulated sugar, not brown sugar.
• Simmer the syrup to 300°F, a slow process that can take up to 20 minutes. Syrup that doesn’t reach 300°F will make the candy chewy and not crunchy.

Once opened, unrefrigerated toffee will last for about a week. Refrigeration adds 3-6 months of shelf life, and freezing adds up to a year or more.

 

Just in case you really wanted Butternut Lettuce, here is a Butternut Salad recipe for you to try:

Ingredients:

• 2 heads butter lettuce roughly chopped.
• 1 cup castelvetrano olives, pitted, cut in half.
• 1/2 cup panko
• 2 tbsp butter (or olive oil)
• 1/4 cup chives, minced.
• 2 oz manchego cheese, grated.
• freshly ground pepper

Apple Cider Vinaigrette Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (unfiltered)
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp olive oil

 

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl whisk together ingredients for the dressing, set aside.
2. In a small skillet set over medium heat, melt butter and add panko. Stir often until panko is golden brown in color.
3. Arrange butter lettuce on a large platter, shave manchego over lettuce and add olives, pepper, panko and chives. Drizzle with dressing right before serving and enjoy!
4. ** If you dress this salad too soon, the panko will get soggy. We recommend saving the panko until after it is dressed and sprinkling it on right before serving.
5. Enjoy!

 

Celebrating Butternut

National Buttercrunch Day is celebrated on January 20^th every year. Whoever named the day was not very specific in that there is more than one kind of butternut, and they are quite different. Let us know in the comments which butternut you chose. We’d also like to know why?