Making Chocolate Buttercrunch — Photos

This weekend’s cooking projects from my collection of recipes included a plain cake with lemon sauce, more pickled eggs (darn those sales on eggs! 🙂 ), and the subject of this post, chocolate buttercrunch. As with previous posts on making pickled eggs and making bran muffins, while I have already made a previous post with some pictures on the subject of chocolate buttercrunch, this post is all about the photos taken while making the chocolate buttercrunch.

First, a bowl was placed on a kitchen scale and the scale weight was set to zero:

Kitchen scale set to zero after placing a bowl on it

Then semi-sweet chocolate chips and milk chocolate buttons (as well as a few rosettes) were taken out …

Semi-sweet chocolate chips and milk chocolate buttons

… and 150 grams of each were weighed out in the bowl, for a total of 300 grams:

300 grams of semi sweet chocolate chips and milk chocolate buttons and rosettes

The chocolates were then put aside for later.

Then, two 13″ x 9″ baking pans were lined with parchment paper, and put aside for later:

Two 13″ x 9″ baking pans lined with parchment paper

To begin making the buttercrunch part, margarine was scooped up in a paper towel …

Margarine on a paper towel

… and a heavy pot was coated with the margarine:

Heavy pot coated with the margarine

A pound of butter was taken out …

A package of butter

… and half a pound of butter was cut off to be used in the recipe, while the remaining portion was put away:

Half a pound of butter was cut off

The butter was placed in the greased, heavy pot, and the stove turned on low:

Butter placed in the greased pot

On a low heat, the butter was completely melted:

Melted butter

A cup and a quarter of granulated white sugar was added to the melted butter …

A cup and a quarter of granulated white sugar added to the melted butter

… along with roughly two tablespoons of maple syrup …

Two tablespoons of maple syrup added

… and roughly two tablespoons of water:

Two tablespoons of water added

The melted butter, sugar, maple syrup, and water were mixed together …

Melted butter, sugar, maple syrup, and water mixed together

… and then stove burner was turned up from a low setting to a medium setting:

Stove raised to medium heat

And the mixture was heated, while constantly being stirred, and the temperature being monitored with a candy thermometer:

Mixture being heated, while constantly being stirred, and the temperature being monitored

Once the mixture reached 300F, it was transferred to the baking pans lined with the parchment paper …

Hot buttercrunch mixture transferred to baking pans lined with parchment paper

… and immediately spread out using a stiff spatula:

Buttercrunch mixture spread out in the baking pans

As a cautionary mention, be careful not to overheat the buttercrunch mixture, since shortly after 300F, the pan will scorch (this picture is normal, but it is at the point at which the candy would scorch if the buttercrunch were left in the pot any longer):

Scorching pot bottom

The chocolate prepared earlier was placed in a microwave oven for two and a half minutes to melt, and partway through, I took it out to blend it so as to help with even melting and to avoid hot spots which would promote burning:

Partially melted chocolates

And then the fully melted chocolate was taken out of the microwave, and fully blended (Note that this photo is from a previous batch some months ago):

Fully melted and blended chocolate

The fully melted and blended chocolate was poured onto the still-warm buttercrunch …

Melted chocolate poured onto the still-warm buttercrunch

… and then the chocolate was promptly spread over the buttercrunch with a stiff spatula:

Chocolate spread over the buttercrunch

The chocolate was allowed to just about fully cool to room temperature, and hence once the chocolate was congealed, a table knife was use to break the buttercrunch into rough pieces:

Chocolate buttercrunch broken into rough pieces with a table knife

The trays of chocolate buttercrunch were then placed in a fridge to completely cool and solidify the candy, and then the pieces were gingerly broken apart by hand (be careful, too much effort or enthusiasm in doing so will separate the chocolate from the buttercrunch):

Pieces of chocolate buttercrunch separated from each other

And finally, the candy was separated into bags:

Chocolate buttercrunch pieces separated into bags

Of course, mom received the largest bag, while my brother will get one of the other two bags.

Yummy!!!

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