Coffee Toffee

When my kid was about two months old, I became obsessed with coffee. I’m sure it was just a coincidence that the coffee kick began just as the number of hours I slept each night decreased, which also coincided with my getting weepy with joy over the transcendent experience of wrapping my fingers around my first coffee each day, even if I was looked at like a weirdo at the coffee shop.

Still, I tried to limit my coffee intake; I always thought it was a slippery slope from enjoying a single small drip coffee each morning to becoming one of those people who need nothing short of a 1-litre coffee tanker to make it in to work each day, and I was afraid to let my tidy coffee habit go. So, like any healthy adult, I sublimated my urges into baked goods, and soon coffee showed up everywhere. There was an espresso-soaked birthday cake, and mocha brownies, and chocolate-chip cookies made with chocolate-covered espresso beans. And, inspired by a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch ice cream, wherein toasted butter and brown sugar mingled dreamily with crunchy powdered espresso, there was this toffee.

This is a grown-up toffee; it’s almost bitter as it is sweet, from both instant espresso powder and molasses, and it makes a great gift for coffee junkies (and new parents – eh, same thing). If a sweet could ever taste like a cup of coffee, this would be it.