Miso Toffee Rolo

A couple of weeks ago I bought a 3kg bag of wholemeal spelt flour from the organic supermarket just around the corner of my flat here in Brussels and got started on a new sourdough starter culture. I loosely followed the recipe in the latest Tartine book although I ended up having to rely much more on visual clues and tips I picked up from friends and family with far more experience with all things sourdough (like my mum) as my starter refused to play game and become active within the timeframe set out in the Tartine book. I waited and waited and although I would not say my new kitchen is particularly drafty it took me close to 2 weeks to have a mature starter.

Now that I finally have a mature starter, I have already baked a couple of loaves and the results are very promising. I need to work on my shaping and handling of the dough (it is rather soft and sticky even compared to other high hydration loaves I have baked), but the latest loaf I made rose beautifully in the oven and had gorgeous little air holes all across the crumb with a wonderfully tangy taste, the perfect vehicle for mashed avocado, almond butter and jam or melted comte. The only thing stopping me from using it to make sandwiches for work is that whenever I get the time for a real lunchbreak I quite like getting up from my desk, leaving the building and heading across the street to a cute little coffee shop to eat a sandwich or a salad there, followed by a small cappuccino (my guilty pleasure since leaving Rome, a place where drinking cappuccino past 11am is very much frowned upon). If I worked near a coffee shop where you could bring your own food provided you order a drink, I would happily bring a sourdough sandwich made from the latest loaf. I would also pack one of these Miso Toffee Rolo as a sweet little something to enjoy with the obligatory post-lunch cappuccino.

I have always had a thing for all things toffee and caramel and growing up, Rolo, the small milk chocolates filled with a soft and chewy caramel, where one of my favourite sweets. I just loved the crunch of the chocolate and the soft toffee filling. I have given that childhood favourite a grown-up twist by using half milk and half dark chocolate and making a miso toffee for the filling. They are terribly addictive and I managed to polish off an entire batch by myself within a couple of days. 

Miso Toffee Rolo

Note: the miso toffee will make quite a bit more toffee than you need for these sweets (unless you want to make a much larger batch of miso toffee rolo), which can only be a good thing as the miso toffee is rather delicious warmed up and poured over ice cream or sticky toffee pudding.

Yield: 6 large rolos using a mini muffin tin (I used a silicone mould for easy unmoulding but a regular mini muffin tin and small paper lines would work as well)

Ingredients

For the miso toffee
200g muscovado sugar
100ml cream
1 tsp honey
60g sweet miso

For the rolo
100g chocolate (I used 50:50 milk and dark chocolate)
2-3 tbsp Miso toffee

Start by making the miso toffee. Add all the ingredients to a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the sugar is melted, the toffee is a light amber colour and has started to thicken (5-10 minutes). Switch off the heat and let toffee cool to room temperature before placing it in the fridge to firm up for a couple of hours.

Roughly chop the chocolate. Melt two thirds of the chocolate in a double boiler. Once the chocolate is melted take the double boiler off the heat and add the remaining third of the chopped chocolate.

As soon as all the chocolate is melted, add about a teaspoon of melted chocolate in each mini muffin tin, followed by a teaspoon sized portion of miso toffee (straight from the fridge the miso toffee will be firm enough to roll into small marble which you can just place in the middle of the melted chocolate). Add enough melted chocolate to ensure the miso toffee is completely covered. Set aside for 3-4 hours to firm up completely.