Espresso Brittle in about 10 Minutes

I have always said that if you don't have a good Ethnic Market near where you live, Move.

When I lived in Philadelphia, I would shop Asian Markets heavily.  Chinese, Japanese, Thai.  That also went for the markets that specialized in Latin Groceries. 

Go to the source.

As a result, I have a taste for "weird" candies.  One in particular is a small hard candy that is made in Japan that tastes like coffee.  Not too strong, not too sweet. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly easy to find this in South Florida.  I've found a good Asian Market that sells my Japanese Candy, as well as Durian, Porcelain, Kitchen Ware, and of course, my Oolong Tea.  I may have to go to North Miami Beach on NE 163rd street for it, but it's worth the trip.

What does that have to do with my Espresso Brittle? 

This candy tastes exactly like it. 

I was making a pot of it, someone "repossessed" it and took it to his office where he reported that "The whole damn office is buzzing on this stuff".  I have to laugh because the entire batch has about the caffeine of 1/4 cup of coffee.  If you eat an entire batch, it's less than 1000 calories.  You'll be sick of it before you put on weight or get buzzed on anything but the sugar.

The trick is that you use either decaf or half caff for the candy.  If you want high test, go for it there really isn't a lot of coffee in it.  For the recipe you only use 1 tablespoon of the stuff.  One Scoop of grounds - your choice!

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup (238mL) Granulated Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon (5 grams by weight) Finely Ground Coffee Grounds (your choice)
• 2 Tablespoons (1/2 ounce or 14g) of ROOM TEMPERATURE butter
• 2 Ounces (59mL) water

Prepare Ingredients: 

• Butter is room temperature and cut down into small pieces.
• Coffee grounds are fine to espresso grind.
• Grease a large cookie sheet or line with aluminium foil that has been oiled or greased. 

Process:

1. Place 1 cup of sugar into 2 quart/liter or larger sauce pan
2. Add to sauce pan 2 ounces (59mL) of water and stir until sugar is evenly dissolved.
3. Turn on heat to medium high.
4. Continue to stir or slosh the mixture while it comes to a boil.
5. Cook the mixture until it turns an appropriate tan color.  
6. Add the butter and the coffee grounds quickly and stir the mixture until it is even.
7. Remove the sauce pan from the heat and pour onto the cookie sheet evenly.
8. Allow to cool and break apart before serving.  

Resulting candy, I have found, to be quite thin and shatters into pieces for easy eating but the pieces will be sharp.

Enjoy!