Food and Fandom: Dread Wolf’s Toffee

Alright, this may seem like the thinnest and most random connection to a fandom, but I swear there is a story to this. And it went mostly like this:

So there I was, sittin’ all innocent-like, and the thought of toffee (and Dragon Age: Inquisition) became forever marked for me. AND IT’S ALL MY FRIEND’S FAULT, I TELL YA.

But enough about that, a little about the fandom (Also, SPOILER ALERT?):

Dragon Age Inquisition is the third installment of Bioware’s ever-popular epic fantasy RPG: Dragon Age. It has dragons (duh). It has kickass women holding all sorts of power (including my own lovely Inquisitor). It has witty party banter and mind-blowingly beautiful scenery. It has all the magicky goodness I could ever ask for.

And most of all: it has men. Elf-men, hu-men, qunari, dwarf. It’s just thriving with romanceable characters of hetero, homo, and bi-sexualities, and honestly, the game brooks no apologies in dashing your heart to pieces or elevating your character’s relationship goals to a higher plane. Which is probably why I keep playing the game over and over and over again. It’s my umpteenth time starting it right now (as a male dwarf warrior, of all things…).

Anyway, there’s this character that wouldn’t have been my typical go-to character, only I’m a pervy elf fancier for the most part (this seems to be true for several games I’ve played that have elf-characters…), and he’s got swag:

Hem hem. Anyway, the toffee conversation happened. I will say this: I can see chocolate almond toffee as a type of food that could describe Solas in a sense. The elf-man runs a particularly massive deception throughout the entire game, and it isn’t until the very end of DAI where the player even sees the extent of Solas’ role in the story. Kind of like my toffee. The entire time my sister thought it was a brownie, up until she bit into it and realized it had the texture of a cookie. A caramelized cookie filled with complication after complication.

But now I’m waxing profundity. So I’ll just go straight to the toffee now…

Chocolate Almond Toffee

The recipe comes from Chungah @ Damn Delicious, though since I didn’t have pecans or whole almonds at the time, I did, as usual, improvise a bit.

Altered Ingredients

• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks (for easier melting)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used a mixture of semi-sweet and dark choco chips)

Spread almonds on baking sheet (I used a silicon mat). Toast almonds at 350 F for 10 minutes in oven. Set aside. (I separated 1/3 cup of the toasted almonds to replace the pecans).

In saucepan, combine butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Whisk constantly until mixture turns a light caramel brown color. It took me about 15 minutes to get the color I wanted.

Spread mixture over the almonds evenly. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and wait 1-2 minutes. Use rubber spatula to spread the chocolate evenly over the caramel mixture.

Sprinkle the 1/3 cup of toasted almonds on top.

Verdict: They’re actually very good, albeit on the sweet side. I might actually take Chungah’s advice about using whole almonds instead of sliced ones at the bottom, though I didn’t actually mind using the sliced almonds on top. Maybe walnuts might cut in the sweetness even more. Also, I’m not a big fan of semi-sweet chocolate for anything, so I might just use dark chocolate chips if I ever make toffee next time.

So yes. I’m sure the Dread Wolf would approve.