Buttercrunch Day may be celebrated informally around the world every Jan. 20, but for two Newmarket sisters, that day falls on their late mother’s birthday, Dec. 5.
For the past two decades, that early December day became known as “Buttercrunch Day” in the family, after mom Carol Frazier-Thompson passed. That’s when siblings Shona and Shari MacDonald hit the kitchen to carry on their mom’s tradition of making the crunchy confection for friends and family at holiday time.
Frazier-Thompson’s handmade treats had grown to become a bonafide business in the 1980s, known as Candy by Carol. And, just three years ago, armed with the secret family buttercrunch recipe passed down in matching binders to the MacDonald sisters, they re-launched their mother’s namesake business in her memory.
“We continued with the tradition to make the candy for family and friends at Christmas and, every year, we got the same response, ‘You girls need to go into business and share this with more people’,” Shona said, who works as a speech-language pathologist. “So, we decided to test that out with local craft shows and the response was so positive and the reaction so huge each and every time that we continued to do that.”
Shari works as a flight attendant and, when the buttercrunch orders come rolling in, the sisters rent a health-and-safety approved kitchen in East Gwillimbury to handcraft each small batch of the roasted almond and chocolate-covered buttercrunch. The product is then vacuum sealed to maintain long-lasting freshness and crunch for up to six months, which gives it a leg up on the competition, Shona said. The product was tested at George Brown College’s culinary institute and was found to maintain its optimum crunch for four to six months.
The Ultimate Buttercrunch recipe is a family secret, of course, but the ingredients include butter, sugar, whole roasted almonds, chocolate and a little bit of baking soda.
“We find it brings joy to people,” Shona said. “People have described it as love in every bite. Since our mother passed away, we feel like we are channelling her love, energy, enthusiasm and integrity. And that’s what drives us.”
There are many different buttercrunch recipes around, but the all-natural and simple ingredients of this one, tweaked and perfected by Frazier-Thompson, is now sold as Unforgettable Buttercrunch at local craft shows and at the CandybyCarol.com online store.
“The secret is that we don’t compromise on quality and integrity of the ingredients or the chocolate,” said Shona, adding that the pair have filled orders for customers in Dubai, the United States and across Canada.
“We’ve been told the buttercrunch is very addictive,” Shona said with a laugh. “We do sample it, but we have to be careful. Our husbands and children are also taste-testers.”
Since the MacDonalds launched the part-time business, hundreds of bags of buttercrunch have gone out the door, or thousands of candy pieces. The most popular sizes are 100 grams for $6 and 200 grams for $12. Custom orders such as corporate gifts and bomboniere are welcome and include customized packaging, as well.
The Unforgettable Buttercrunch is, objectively, unforgettable. The thickish pieces deliver a mouth-watering toffee-flavoured crunch with every bite, along with a satisfying nut-to-dark chocolate ratio.
For more information, visit Candy by Carol online or on Facebook.
