A Buttery English Toffee Recipe That's Just what Toffee Should Be (2024)

FAQs

What is butter toffee made of? ›

Butter: This sweet and crunchy toffee starts with four sticks of melted butter. Sugar: Two cups of sugar add the perfect amount of sweetness. Salt: A pinch of salt enhances the other flavors. Chocolate chips: Melted semisweet chocolate chips are spread over the toffee for an extra layer of deliciousness.

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.

And English toffee is rich and buttery, has a good crispy snap, and yet is somehow easy to eat. The defining factor of English toffee is the thick layer of chocolate slathered on top with a generous dusting of toasted nuts. Hungry yet? At its base, toffee is just a mixture of butter and sugar.

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.

We recommend serving the toffee at room temperature, although many of our customers tell us they love it cold. Conservatively, our toffee will keep well in the refrigerator for three weeks (take care to guard against moisture getting to it), and three months in the freezer.

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.

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).

Toffee vs Butterscotch

While butterscotch is cooked to a soft-crack stage, toffee is produced by allowing that same butter and brown sugar mixture to reach the hard-crack stage. Butterscotch tends to be chewy and pliable; toffee is brittle and more breakable.

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

Why is my butter toffee grainy? ›

As the toffee cools and the molten sugar crystals become solid again, they are attracted to the 'seed' forming new lumps of tiny crystals – hence the grainy texture. This can also happen if the toffee is stirred, or agitated, after it has begun to boil or on cooling (as happened with this pink-tinted toffee).

Here's how you know when the toffee is ready. Keep one of the almonds near the pan. It's your color cue. When the toffee is the color of the almond skin, it's done!

When it comes to butterscotch and toffee you've got a lot of the same ingredients. They also use butter, vanilla, and heavy whipping cream, but it's the sugar that differentiates these two from caramel. While caramel uses white sugar, both butterscotch and toffee use brown sugar.

Butterscotch is a type of confectionery whose primary ingredients are brown sugar and butter. Some recipes include corn syrup, cream, vanilla, and salt. The earliest known recipes, in mid-19th century Yorkshire, used treacle (molasses) in place of, or in addition to, sugar.

If the heat is too high, but butter might melt too quickly and can separate from the sugar.

Butter crunch is typically toffee that's got crushed nuts on its chocolate coating. Our version turns that idea on its head. Instead of packing chocolate with crushed nuts, we let the nuts cook into our buttery-sweet toffee recipe until they're nice and toasty, bringing their mojo and nuance into the candy blend.