sprinklefingers

i had to start a food journal. you know, where you write down what you eat all day? kind of depressing, yes…but as soon as i turned 35 in july i noticed this incredibly depressing downward shift in my body…mainly in places of my body i’ll never admit here.

as soon as i noticed the shift i started asking around: hey, lady friends, did your body shift when you turned 35? i got a variety of answers. but nothing definitive.

so then i realized the sad truth: i eat too much.

i never, ever go on diets. so i figured i could write down what i eat all day and perhaps that simple act would hold me accountable and i wouldn’t rush to shove 39 handfuls of peanut butter m&m’s into my mouth upon returning home from working all day - AT A BAKERY.

right around the time i started my food journal, i thought i’d get to work on the creation of a toffee sauce. generally food journals and toffee sauce shouldn’t really be in the same sentence, but - like i said before - i don’t diet. i’m simply writing down what i eat. so what if one of my entries for yesterday was “several cups of toffee sauce”? at least i’m being honest and actually writing it down.

this toffee sauce is inspired by rachel allen. i kind of want to go spend the weekend with her. right after i spend the weekend at ina’s, that is.

the key to my toffee sauce is a magical substance called lyle’s golden syrup. i can eat the stuff right out of the jar (in fact, one entry from yesterday’s food journal reads, “one too many spoonfuls lyle’s.”) you can pick up your own jar of lyle’s at a well-stocked market.

golden toffee sauce
makes 2 1/2 cups

you need:

• 6 T unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 cup half & half
• 1 1/4 cup lyle’s golden syrup
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
• 6 oz light brown sugar
• 4 oz vanilla sugar
• splash of vanilla extract
• 2 pinches grey sea salt

to make the sauce:

1. combine butter and half & half in a nonreactive saucepan. heat over medium until milk is warmed up and butter is starting to melt.
2. add the lyle’s golden syrup and the vanilla bean pod & scrapings. stir well to coax the syrup to begin melting.
3. add both sugars, the vanilla extract and sea salt.
4. bring mixture to a boil and let boil for 6 minutes, taking care to stir the mixture every 30 seconds.
5. after exactly 6 minutes, remove from heat.
6. allow the sauce to cool a bit then transfer to a glass container for storage. i use a lidded canning jar.
7. once transferred to the storage container, stir the sauce every 10 minutes or so until it is completely cooled. once cooled, store your sauce in the fridge for up to one month.

this sauce is very good on a spoon. it takes vanilla ice cream to a whole new level. it’d be divine poured over a slice of apple pie. or, hell, as an apple dip.  when at fridge temperature it’s quite thick, but heat it up and it’s very thin - perfect for tossing on popcorn or stirring into hot chocolate.

i’m stopping with ideas now because it’s your turn. make the sauce. what will you do with it?