It wouldn't be a Christmas season without making my mom's homemade English Toffee recipe. She's the reason I started this blog after all, (read the story here!) so it's only appropriate that I share one of her most famous recipes with all of you along with 13-layer rainbow jello.
This English Toffee candy is so simple to make and tastes delicious!Like, melt in your mouth delicious.
So if you've ever wondered "how to make toffee" this post will show you how easy it is!
WHAT IS TOFFEE?
This English butter toffee recipe is a popular Christmas treat made with butter, sugar, and chocolate.
ENGLISH TOFFEE GIFTS
Homemade toffee is great for Neighbor gifts, teacher gifts, or visitors who stop by. Just package this English butter toffee little cellophane bags and tie with a ribbon for a quick gift!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE TOFFEE:
What is English toffee made of?
1 pound real butter- do not use margarine (they don't call it a buttery English toffee recipe for no reason!)
1. First, melt the butter in a large saucepan on medium heat. Don't burn it! Once the butter starts melting, attach the candy thermometer to side of the pan like this:
2. Once the butter melts, stir in the water, sugar, and light corn syrup. You'll cook it until it reaches 300 degrees F, or the hard crack stage. This is a hard toffee recipe, so be sure it reaches the full temperature.
It will take about 15 minutes to reach 300 degrees. Just keep stirring. So before you start making this Toffee, make sure you have a good 20 minutes or so that you can dedicate to just this!
3. Once the old English toffee mixture has reaches that temperature, you pour the super hot, sweet-smelling hot toffee mixture onto an extra large cookie sheet(*aff. link).
4. Then you sprinkle semi-sweet chocolate chips onto the toffee. And if you keep your chocolate chips in the freezer like I do and are worried about them not melting, do not fear! They will melt just fine.
You'll want a bowl scraper to smooth the chocolate chips all over the toffee. Keep smoothing until the chocolate has melted and you have a nice, smooth layer on top.
5. For English toffee with nuts, just sprinkle chopped walnuts, or your favorite nuts, on top at this point. You can certainly make it without nuts, too.
6. Take the cookie sheet(*aff. link) of goodness and place outside (if it's nice and cold!) or in the refrigerator and leave there until the toffee has hardened and the chocolate is no longer runny.
7. Once the toffee has cooled completely, hit with the back of a knife to make uneven pieces. Once you have one section broken, you can even use your hands to break the rest.
8. Store in an airtight container or package up for yummy gifts.
See how easy making toffee can be? Seriously, you got this!
READY TO MAKE THE BEST ENGLISH TOFFEE?
I would say I would send you some of ours, but the truth is: our entire batch is already gone. Guess we'll just need to make another! 🙂
A simple but amazing English Toffee, perfect for holiday gifts, parties, or treats!
Ingredients
Scale
1 pound real butter, do not use margarine
1 cup water
2 ½ cups white sugar
4 Tablespoons light corn syrup
about 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
chopped walnuts, if desired
candy thermometer
wooden spoon
Instructions
Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Attach the candy thermometer to the pan now.
Once the butter is melted, add in the water, white sugar and corn syrup.
Cook the mixture until it reaches 300 degrees F (hard crack) on a candy thermometer. This will take about 12-14 minutes. Make sure to stir continually so that it doesn't burn. Use a wooden spoon-- a plastic spoon will melt!
Once it reaches 300 F, pour the mixture on an ungreased cookie sheet (10x15 is good).
Sprinkle chocolate chips on the top and spread with a bowl scraper. (They will melt). Once you spread the chocolate and it's all melted, sprinkle the chopped nuts if you are going to add them. Cool until hard. To speed up the process, place outside in the cold weather or place in the refrigerator.
Once cool and hard, use the back of a knife to break the English Toffee into pieces. Store in an air-tight container.
Prep Time:3 minutes
Cook Time:14 minutes
Category:Treats
Keywords: english toffee, toffee, butter toffee, christmas candy
Save this British toffee recipe for later! Enjoy one of our favorite Christmas goodies!
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.
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.
Stirring too quickly or too often can cause the toffee to separate. Moderate the heat as needed – turn it down if the toffee is boiling or cooking too fast so it doesn't burn. Cook until the toffee registers 285-290 degrees on an instant-read or candy thermometer and is deep amber brown in color, about 20-25 minutes.
For maximum taste and texture, we do recommend that you either enjoy your toffee immediately, or store it in a refrigerator or freezer. Once opened, unrefrigerated product will retain maximum freshness for about a week.Refrigeration adds 3-6 months of shelf life, while freezing adds up to a year or more.
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.
Once the butter has melted, stop stirring and bring mixture to a boil. Once boiling, cook, stirring only 2 to 3 times, until it turns a dark amber color and the temperature reaches 285 degrees F (137 degrees C) on a candy thermometer, 20 to 30 minutes.
Make sure that the point of the candy thermometer is not touching the bottom of your pan. Continue to stir occasionally, the mixture will slowly thicken and will turn a more yellow hue as it cooks, and cook to hard crack (305°F/151°C).
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).
You need a very sturdy pan which is KEY to even heat distribution. Thinner, cheaper pans can scorch the cooking candy and/or cook it unevenly. Here are some great choices: Anolon Nouvelle Copper and Cooks Standard. I own a couple pricier copper pots because of the amount of candy I make.
Cream of tartar can prevent your homemade hard candy, caramel, and toffee from forming a gritty texture due to sugar crystallization. Adding a pinch of cream of tartar to your sugar syrup will help break down the sugar molecules and stop them from crystalizing early on. Adding a tangy flavor to cookie recipes.
Sometimes separated toffee or caramel can be saved by removing the saucepan from the heat and stirring constantly until it comes back together into a smooth mixture.
According to Blakeslee, if a candy appears extremely sticky or has a grainy texture, then it has most likely expired due to temperature abuse and the crystallization of sugar. As a result, she said, it may develop an off flavor, have a change in color or turn moldy if it contains fruits or nuts.
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 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).
Why is my toffee soft? If your toffee doesn't have a hard texture (where you can snap it in half) you did not cook it long enough. Again, the 5-minutes is just a guide. Cook it until it is the color of a brown bag.
The caramel topping needs to get to the hard-crack stage or it will be chewy. This means you may have to bake it a little longer or adjust your oven temperature slightly (every oven is different). I insist on a candy thermometer.
Introduction: My name is Fr. Dewey Fisher, I am a powerful, open, faithful, combative, spotless, faithful, fair person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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