Guy Fawkes Day and Bonfire Toffee

I didn't know much about Guy Fawkes Night before arriving in England, other than that it involved lots of fireworks, bonfires, and burning of effigies. But as November 5th approached and I saw the growing anticipation and excitement of the holiday with each passing day, I realized that this wasn't just an excuse to play with explosives and fire, this was a serious English cultural celebration.

Guy Fawkes was a member of a Catholic conspiracy group who attempted to blow up Parliament and the Protestant King James I in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. (They had placed 36 barrels of gunpowder under Parliament, enough to blow up the entire House of Commons, the king, and all the political elite--imagine how that would have changed history!). The plot was betrayed and foiled and the day has now turned into a day of celebration of English Protestantism, thanksgiving, and general revelry. (For more history and info, see link below).

The best part of most cultural celebrations to me, is of course, the food. Traditional Guy Fawkes foods include toffee apples, potato pie with pickled red cabbage, baked potatoes, and treacle desserts, including bonfire toffee and parkin. So to try to understand the spirit of Guy Fawkes night, I made some traditional bonfire toffee. Like usual toffee, this is made by cooking sugar to hard crack, but it is made with brown sugar and black treacle (molasses) which gives it an especially burnt and sharp flavor and makes it black, looking like bits of coal pulled from the bonfire. It's easy to make and although the taste is a bit surprising, after a few pieces it is really delicious! I brought the toffee to my foodie classmates on Friday and all of them, a range of nationalities and taste buds, decreed it to be delicious and ate many pieces. So try this toffee; as soon as you taste it you'll be able to imagine yourself surrounded by burning effigies in London!

Bonfire Toffee (Treacle Toffee)

4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 Tbsp. water

1 Tbsp. white vinegar

1 lb. brown sugar

8 oz. (225 g) black treacle (or molasses)

Note: If you've made caramel or toffee before, this is very similar, but even easier! Like with making caramel, make sure you use a large, deep stainless steel pot, as the boiling sugar will rise and spit as it gets hotter and hotter. Even if you think your pot is too big, it's not; the sugar will grow, and it's a nightmare to clean up boiled-over cooked sugar, so go with your big pot. Non-stick, teflon pans will start to melt with prolonged high heat, so make sure you use a pot that is stainless steel, copper, or something with a high heat tolerance. Copper pots are ideal because they provide the most even distribution of heat.

Directions:

Put butter, water, and vinegar in a large pot over low heat and cook until butter is completely melted. Add brown sugar and treacle and stir with a wooden spoon until all sugar is moist and dissolved. Turn heat up to medium-high and cook for about 10 minutes, until mixture reaches 280F on a thermometer. Do NOT stir the liquid once you have turned up the heat and it starts to boil; stirring the boiling liquid can cause crystallization (leaving a granular texture) and also increases your chances of getting burned, so let it boil all on its own. As it approaches 280F the small bubbles will turn into thick glossy bubbles that leave large potholes in the sugar when they pop, like pancake batter just before you flip a pancake. When the temperature has been reached, very carefully pour the toffee into a buttered 6 or 7 inch square pan. The size and shape of the pan ultimately doesn't matter, it's just about how thick you want the toffee. I doubled this recipe and poured it into two different sized pans to play with the thickness. Make sure before you pour the toffee into the pan that you have the pan positioned in a safe, cool place for the toffee to sit and cool; once the toffee is in the pan, the pan is too hot and dangerous to move. Let cool completely (overnight) and then break into pieces with a hammer or sharp knife. I also read instructions in an old British recipe from 1922 to turn out the toffee while warm but not too hot to handle. Stretch into sticks and cut into 1 inch pieces.

For more info about Toffee Treacle:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article2662748.ece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonfire_toffee

For more detailed info about Guy Fawkes Night and the Gunpowder Plot:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/guy-fawkes-london-feature-337.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_plot