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.

1) Use a heavy-bottom saucepan. This is important as the thicker base means more even heat distribution which means less chance of burning. Thin-bottom, cheaply made pots should stay far away from toffee making. I always use a stainless pot – I wouldn't recommend pots with nonstick coating.

Lesson #2: You Can Stir, But Use Severe Discipline

At least for a little while. Too much agitation may cause the mixture to crystallize or separate, but too little stirring may cause the mixture to heat unevenly and burn. The latter is a highly likely outcome due to the addition of butter in toffee recipes.

The difference is mainly in the candy-making process: taffy is pulled and stretched until it's soft and chewy. Toffee, on the other hand, won't stick in your teeth like taffy, because it is boiled, shaped, and allowed to harden into a delicious, glossy slab.

Toffee vs Caramel

The difference between toffee and caramel is that caramel is made with white granulated sugar and cooked to 340 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas toffee is made with butter and brown sugar and cooked to 295 - 309 degrees Fahrenheit.

You might wonder why the toffee recipe includes baking soda. It is added at the end of the boiling stage and creates lots and lots of bubbles. These bubbles help to lighten the texture of the finished toffee, resulting in an easier-to-bite candy.

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.

Toffee flavours

Cinder or honeycomb toffee (known as hokey pokey in New Zealand) has baking soda and vinegar added so the toffee froths and makes bubbles as it sets, giving a completely different texture.

Why do you put cream of tartar in toffee? ›

This means that as boiling continues, a portion of the sugar separates into its constituent parts—glucose and fructose. Adding cream of tartar and a dash of vinegar to a toffee recipe helps bring about this change.

Using foil as your "pan" allows the toffee to cool quicker. Plywood boards keep your work surface from scorching, and make flipping the toffee easy. Combining semisweet and milk chocolate makes for a rich toffee coating.

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).

Let it melt slowly over low heat! The butter and sugar will separate once it has completely melted. Don't worry about the separation at this point, it will come back together once the heat is turned up. Once the butter has completely melted, turn the heat up to med high.

Toffee Making Tips + Troubleshooting

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!

There are many types of candy, both here in the U.S. and across the pond in the British Isles, referred to as toffee. In America, English toffee usually refers to a candy made with slow-cooked sugar and butter, forming a brittle, which is then coated in chocolate and 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 .

BBC's butter toffee recipe contains cream and is only cooked to the "soft-crack" stage, making it similar in texture and finish to butterscotch. Toffee sans cream, in its original state, comes in brittles or shards, which are often found interspersed in decadent cookies or chocolate bars.