Best Homemade Toffee Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between English toffee and regular toffee? ›

English Toffee is a nationwide favorite that is easily made with only a few ingredients. The difference between regular toffee and English Toffee is one important ingredient – butter! I make English Toffee throughout the year for special occasions and it's always a big hit.

Don't hurry this gradual transformation; syrup that doesn't reach 300°F, or close to it, will make candy with timid flavor and chewy (not crunchy) texture. Think you can save time by bringing the syrup to a full rolling, popping boil in order for it to darken more quickly? Think again.

Store homemade toffee in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week or in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Brittles and toffees accumulate small amounts of acid from the browning reactions that occur during cooking. This is one reason why the baking soda is added at the end of cooking. The soda reacts with the acid to make bubbles, and the syrup foams.

It's important while the toffee cooks to only stir it occasionally. Constant stirring can cause the toffee to crystallize and separate.

Toffee – the hard, sweet candy – is an old-fashioned treat, so you might not hear the name very much around modern candy shops. But this classic candy is an enjoyable delight that bursts with flavor at each bite. What is toffee, you ask? Basically, it's hardened caramel (more on that later).

If the butterfat separates out then usually this is due to the mixture being either heated or cooled too quickly, which "shocks" the mixture and causes the fat to separate out. It can also be caused by the mixture being heated unevenly (if the pan has a thin base and has hot spots).

Most people agree that toffee is cooked to soft crack stage, which is at temperature of 135°C – 140°C (275°F – 284°F), or hard crack stage which occurs at temperature of 145°C – 155°C (293°F – 311°F). More precisely, this candy is usually cooked at temperatures from 140°C – 150°C (284°F – 302°F).

Using a candy thermometer is the most precise way to tell when your toffee is done. If you want to use a candy thermometer, you will want to cook the toffee until it reaches about 300℉/149℃.

Can you cook toffee too long? ›

Undercooked toffee won't be anything more than a caramel sauce. But overcooked toffee will be just slightly crunchier (almost unrecognizably). So, always err on the side of over-cooking!

As an alternative solution, before cooking, add corn syrup or a mild acid like lemon juice, vinegar, or cream of tartar to break up crystallization.

Cream of tartar is a white powder sold in the baking aisle that's commonly used to stabilize whipped egg whites in meringues and cakes, prevent sugar crystallization in candies and caramel, and act as the activating ingredient in baking powder.

This usually happens when the toffee mixture is heated too quickly or at too high of a temperature. Make sure to use medium heat (or medium-low) and go SLOW!

The English toffee eaten with regularity in America is also called buttercrunch. What's the difference? Primarily, the difference rests in the ingredients. Toffee in Britain is made with brown sugar, whereas buttercrunch is made with white granulated sugar.

English toffee and American toffee diverged with the preferred use of sugar type. English toffee is made with brown sugar, while American-style toffee, known as buttercrunch is made with white table sugar (granulated sugar). Buttercrunch is typically dusted with crushed almonds or other nuts.

If the butterfat separates out then usually this is due to the mixture being either heated or cooled too quickly, which "shocks" the mixture and causes the fat to separate out.

Toffee is a hard candy made by cooking a sugar syrup with butter to the hard crack stage, 300–310°F (149–154°C), and then pouring it out to cool. It can have inclusions or not, and it can be made either very dense and hard or can be lightened by adding baking soda when the candy is almost done cooking .

In fact, if you want to get technical about it, toffee is just butterscotch that hardens when cooked to a higher temperature (as opposed to softer butterscotch that is heated to a lower, more pourable consistency). When toffee is topped with chocolate and nuts, it is often referred to as English Toffee.