photo courtesy of Toffee to Go

The Toffee To Go Story

When Lisa first tasted the traditional Schalk toffee she thought it was so incredible she told her husband, Jim, they had to learn how to make it immediately. Jim and Lisa spent hours learning the family recipe and after many attempts they had it mastered. They made a few alterations to the original recipe and what started out as a yummy treat for their friends and family has become Toffee To Go-home of “incredible handmade toffee.”

During the holidays, Jim and Lisa cooked their handmade almond toffee for family, friends and neighbors. It wasn’t long before their toffee became a popular topic of conversation and many of their friends hoped to be included on their Christmas toffee giving list. In 1997, their friend, Debbie Jackson, suggested the couple sell their incredible handmade toffee.

Jim and Lisa first started selling their toffee in 1998 to friends who had their own holiday gift giving needs. That year, Lisa also started selling the toffee at local Christmas shows. To their surprise, the first year they sold over 125 pounds of their gourmet treat. The next holiday season they were asked back to every Christmas show, and many new clubs and organizations were asking them to display and sell their toffee.

Jim and Lisa realized in 2002 that the demand for their toffee was getting too large for them to continue to sell out of their home. They decided to incorporate and expand into a commercial kitchen. Again, it wasn’t long before Jim and Lisa realized they needed more than just the commercial kitchen: they also needed a packaging and shipping area. They moved into their first commercial location in July of 2004 and opened a small retail shop on November 23, 2004.

With the incorporation in 2002 , and business thriving, the couple knew their delicious toffee was more than just a treat for the holidays. After adding two new packaging options, they quickly moved into the corporate gift segment, selling their toffee year round. Local corporations were ordering the Tampa Treasure for client and employee gifts and receiving rave reviews. Back then, Jim, did all the cooking and Lisa did the packing and shipping. Now, companies all over the country are ordering Toffee To Go and Jim still cooks and oversees the production staff and Lisa handles sales and marketing.

Whether customers need holiday gifts, business gifts, corporate gifts, party favors or just a treat for themselves, Jim and Lisa have a delectable selection of toffee available. They take pride in the fact that no preservatives are added to their toffee and that it is still made by hand in small batches. Lisa and Jim love the candy business and they are ready to serve you at Toffee To Go!

About their flavors:

Toffee to Go has a thin layer of chocolate so the incredible rich buttery flavor comes through on every bite. Toffee to Go has three fabulous melt in your mouth flavors. All three are made by first blending sweet creamery butter with pure cane sugar to create a rich, bubbling aromatic mixture. Their mouth-watering milk chocolate almond toffee has an abundance of roasted almonds and a thin layer of pure milk chocolate. Their decadent dark chocolate pecan toffee is paved with pecans and covered with a thin layer of pure semi-sweet chocolate. Their wonderful white chocolate macadamia nut toffee has mouthfuls of macadamia nuts and is covered with a thin layer of white chocolate. The final sprinkling of chopped walnuts on each flavor completes the transformation into a decadent gourmet treat!

Packaging:
Toffee to Go has several packaging options. From their signature gold boxes and tins, to bright colorful options that can all be imprinted with corporate logos or event names for branding purposes, Toffee to Go has sizes and styles to fit every budget and occasion. Of course, the best part is knowing that the recipient will remember your gift of Toffee to Go long after the last bite is gone.

Discount CODE for 100CafeStreet.com readers: CAFE20. This code will give you a generous 20% discount on the 8oz gold Toffee to Go boxes.  It expires on Sept. 30, 2009.

The Giveaway

This giveaway is open to US residents only.

Prizes:
Toffee to Go will give away three (3) of their 8 oz. Assorted Flavor boxes of Toffee to Go. That way the winners can sample each of Toffee to Go’s incredible flavors!

How to enter (required): Visit www.toffeetogo.com and then come back and leave a comment telling us the name of your favorite product!

For additional entries (leave a new comment for each additional entry):
- one additional entry if you become our fan on FACEBOOK;
- one additional entry if you grab our button from the sidebar and post it on your blog, please post the link;
- one additional entry if you follow us on Twitter;
- one additional entry if you send a tweet about this giveaway (once a day only); make sure to include @1happyblogger. You may use the following to tweet: @1happyblogger For a chance to win some toffee, go to http://www.100cafestreet.com/toffee-to-go-giveaway
- one additional entry if you fave us in Technorati;
- one additional entry if you blog about this Giveaway with a link back to 100CafeStreet.com and Toffeetogo.com
- one additional entry if you follow 100CafeStreet.com via email.

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The giveaway ends on Sept. 9, 2009 at the end of day, Pacific Standard Time. Toffee to Go will ship the prizes.

*Please make sure you leave a comment for each additional entry so you get credited.
*Also, please make sure you typed in the correct email address.
*The winners will be announced via e-mail and have 2 days to get back to us or other names will be chosen.
*Incomplete entries will be disqualified & deleted.

Today we customized one of the most delicious doughnuts recipes out there. The original recipe can be found here.

Preparation Time: approx. 20 minutes
Baking Time: approx. 10 minutes
Total time: approx. 30 minutes
Servings: 12

Ingredients:
#  2 cups cake flour
# 3/4 cup white sugar
# 2 teaspoons baking powder
# 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
# 1/2teaspoon ground cinnamon
# 1 teaspoon salt
# 3/4 cup buttermilk
# 2 eggs, beaten
# 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
# 1 tablespoon melted butter
# 200g milk chocolate
# 200ml fresh cream
# grated nestle peppermint crisp

Preparation:
#  Preheat oven to 338F/170c. Lightly grease a doughnut pan.
# In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Stir in buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and butter. Beat together until well blended.
# Fill each doughnut cup approximately 3/4 full. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until doughnuts spring back when touched. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan.

Ganache:
# Bring the cream to boil, remove from stove and add your chocolate. Mix until all chocolate is melted.
# Dip cooled doughnuts into ganache and top with grated peppermint crisp.

My kids finished these within an hour…LOL. I got to taste just one.

Enjoy!! And let us know if you liked them!

April is Pecan Month. Let’s celebrate it with some awesome Pecan recipes! Here is one from Pillsbury.com

Maple-Cinnamon-Pecan Pull-Aparts from pillsbury.com

Cinnamon and maple blend lusciously in an irresistible pull-apart sized for entertaining.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 45 – 50 minutes
Total time: approx. 1 hour
Servings: 12

Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon maple flavor or vanilla
1 can (17.5 oz) Pillsbury® Grands!® Flaky Supreme refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 8×4-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, mix all ingredients except cinnamon rolls with icing.

2. Separate dough into 5 rolls; set icing aside. Cut each roll into quarters; add to pecan mixture, tossing gently to coat. Spoon roll mixture into pan.

3. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate or platter. Spread with icing. Serve warm.

High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Bake 50 to 55 minutes.

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If you’ve tried this recipe and would like to add your picture to our Flickr Group, here is the link: 100CafeStreet Flickr Group

Approx. $700 million in pies (approx. 186 million units) are sold in grocery stores every year. This does not include restaurants, food service or price clubs, only grocery stores. If you lined up the number of pies sold at U.S. grocery stores in one year, they would circle the globe and then some.

cherry pie. photo courtesy of Snutur

According to a 2008 survey by Crisco® and American Pie Council:
•Nearly one out of five (19%) of Americans prefer apple pie, followed by pumpkin (13%), pecan (12%), banana cream (10%) and cherry (9%)
•Pie just isn’t for after-dinner dessert. Thirty-five percent of Americans say they’ve had pies for breakfast. Pies as lunch (66%) and midnight snacks (59%) also have a popular following.
•When asked what dessert Americans would prefer a friend or family member bring to their house for a holiday dinner, pie was the winner with 29%. Cake (17%) and cookies (15%) rounded out the top-three spots.

Pumpkin pie was first introduced to the holiday table at the pilgrim’s second Thanksgiving in 1623.

Pie was not always America’s favorite dessert – in the 19th Century, fruit pies were a common breakfast food eaten before the start of a long day.

According to a 2008 “Pie Slice of Life” Survey, conducted by Schwan’s Consumer Brands North America, Inc., Carol Brady of The Brady Bunch was picked by 40% of survey respondents as the TV mom that would bake the best pie. The Cosby Show’s Claire Huxtable was second with 22%, Desperate Houswives’ Bree Van de Camp was third with 16 percent, Everybody Loves Raymond’s Debra Barone was fourth with 13% while The Simpsons’ Marge Simpson came in fifth with 8%.

The same survey also revealed that when asked “Who Makes the Best Pie?,” Mom rates highly (27%), and store bought convenience pie came in a close second with a 26% slice of the pie – beating out Grandma who garnered 17%.
This 2006 Four Points® Pie Portrait is an examination of how Americans enjoy their signature dessert, in honor of Four Points by Sheraton’s simple pleasures offerings: pie in all its restaurants, express pie via room service.

Pie By the Numbers
•36 million Number of Americans who identify apple pie as their favorite
•47% Americans for whom the word “comforting” comes to mind when they think of pie
•6 million Number of American men ages 35-54 who have eaten the last slice of pie and denied it
•27% Americans who believe chocolate pie is the most romantic to share with someone special
•1 in 5 Proportion of Americans who have eaten an entire pie by themselves
•113 million Number of Americans who have eaten pie for breakfast
•75 million Number of Americans who prefer to drink milk with their pie
•32% Americans who prefer no crust on top of their pie
•90% Americans who agree that a slice of pie represents one of the simple pleasures in life
•9% Americans who prefer to eat their pie crust-first
•7% Americans who have passed off a store-bought pie as homemade
•18% Men who say their wife makes the best homemade pie
•2% Women who say their husband makes the best homemade pie

Pie Personalities
If you love… You are likely to describe yourself as…
Apple Pie Independent, realistic and compassionate
Pecan Pie Thoughtful and analytical
Chocolate Pie Loving
Pumpkin Pie Funny and independent

Pie Preferences
•More than one-third of Americans have eaten pie in bed
•Nearly one in four women believe that they make the best pie – better than Mom or Grandma
•More than one-third of Americans have craved pie in the middle of the night
The first mention of a fruit pie in print is from Robert Green’s Arcadia (1590): “thy breath is like the steame of apple-pyes.”

The wet bottom molasses pie, Shoo-fly pie, was used to attract flies from the kitchen.
Oliver Cromwell banned the eating of pie in 1644, declaring it a pagan form of pleasure. For 16 years, pie eating and making went underground until the Restoration leaders lifted the ban on pie in 1660.

The wealthy English were known for their “Surprise Pies” in which live creatures would pop out when the pie was cut open.

At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas.

“As easy as pie” is an American expression. In the 1890’s, “pie” was a common slang expression meaning anything easy, a cinch; the expression “easy as pie” stemmed quite readily from that.

Boston Cream Pie is a cake, not a pie.

Pies are favorite props for humor, particularly when aimed at the pompous. Throwing a pie in a person’s face has been a staple of film comedy since the early days of the medium, and real-life pranksters have taken to targeting politicians and celebrities with their pies, an act called “pieing.”

State Pies:
•Key Lime pie was just adopted in the state of Florida as the official pie in 2006.
•The state of Vermont adopted apple pie as the official state pie in 1999.

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Source: www.piecouncil.org Check out their website for more info on pies!