Toffee

It’s the time of year for colds and sore throats. I’ve had my own over Christmas and the New Year, and I know I’m not alone. Then comes the tickly cough. One of the best low-cost remedies (although it’s not a cure) is home-made toffee, which coats your throat in a sticky, sweet goo that is utterly delicious.

It’s very easy to make, and requires only a small number of inexpensive ingredients. This recipe was always made by my grandmother, and she hand wrote it in her recipe book under the title ‘Good Toffee’.

Ingredients
6 tablespoons of sugar
115g (4oz) of butter
3 desert spoons of milk
3 desert spoons of Golden Syrup
a little vinegar

Method
Place all of the ingredients in a heavy pan and boil them over a very gentle heat for 20 minutes. This combination boils at a very low temperature, and you don’t want to burn your sugar, so keep things as cool as possible while still retaining a gentle boil. On some gas hobs you might have to turn things down so far that you don’t even see a flame.

Meanwhile, run the tap until really cold and fill a glass with water. After 20 minutes, use a teaspoon to take a small amount of the mixture out of the pan and drop it into the water. If it forms into a small ball then it is ready. If not, keep boiling a little longer and try again.

Once one of your drops of mixture has formed a ball, take what remains off the heat and pour it into a baking tray to cool. Before it is fully cold, score lines into it using a knife, and when it is fully cooled use these to separate the mixture into individual sweets, which should be wrapped in twists of greaseproof paper.

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