Always among the most popular confections, buttercrunch successfully
combines chocolate, nuts and sugar in an enticing manner.
1. To make the buttercrunch, melt the butter in a saucepan. Remove from
heat and stir in remaining ingredients except almonds. Return to heat
and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches 300 degrees
on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat, stir in almonds and pour out
on buttered pan or marble to cool and harden.
2. To make the topping, melt and temper the chocolate (see Note).
Spread chocolate on one side of buttercrunch and sprinkle with half the
chopped nuts. Allow to set, and repeat coating on other side. After both
coatings have set, break into coarse pieces and store in a tin.
Note:
When you melt chocolate, the crystals in the cocoa butter dissolve and
become unstable. If the chocolate sets again after being melted, the cocoa
butter rises to the surface and forms a gray film. To prevent this, you
need to temper chocolate so the crystals become stable and the chocolate
sets with good texture and sheen. Tempering is necessary when using chocolate
for any number of decorative techniques, including cutouts or fine piping
done on paper and transferred.
There are several different methods for tempering, all of which are
geared to restabilizing the crystals of the cocoa butter so the chocolate
returns to the same state it was in before melting. It is not practical
to temper less than 1 1/2 pounds of chocolate at one time, since temperature
changes occur so rapidly with a small quantity that the chocolate will
go in and out of temper haphazardly during the process.
Temperature is an important part of tempering and a good thermometer
makes the process a lot easier. Bear in mind the temperatures in the chart
below when tempering chocolate.
1 to 1 1/2 pounds chocolate
1. Very finely chop about 3/4 of the chocolate and place it in a heatproof
bowl. Bring a pan of water to a simmer, remove from the heat and place
the bowl of chocolate over the water. Be careful that the bottom of the
bowl does not touch the surface of the water or the chocolate will overheat.
Stir the chocolate frequently as it is melting. Measure the chocolate’s
temperature occasionally to make sure that it does not exceed 120F.
2. Remove the bowl from the water. Carefully dry the bottom of the bowl,
so that there is no risk of water falling into the melted chocolate. Add
the remaining chocolate in large pieces. Stir constantly to melt and incorporate
the remaining chocolate. This process should take between 5 and 10 minutes.
3. To bring the chocolate into a completely tempered state, reheat it
repeatedly over the same pan of hot water for no more than 2 or 3 seconds
at a time, until it reaches a temperature of 87F to 91F for bittersweet
or semisweet chocolate or 84F to 88F for milk or white chocolate. Check
the temperature of the chocolate after each time it is heated to prevent
overheating. If the temperature rises above 91F, the chocolate is out
of temper and you must start the process from the beginning.
110 F to 120 F: The chocolate should be melted to this temperature
before tempering. The chocolate should be cooled by adding finely cut
chocolate to begin restabilizing the crystals.
87 F to 91F: Bittersweet and semisweet chocolates should be elevated
to this temperature to be in temper.
84 F to 88 F: Milk and white chocolates should be elevated to
this temperature to be in temper.
