Mom's Homemade English Toffee Recipe (2024)

In today’s post: This is the best English Toffee recipe, and it’s super easy! You only need five ingredients to make classic toffee that everyone will love. You don’t even need a candy thermometer.

For as long as I can remember, my mom has been making English Toffee to give as gifts at Christmas time. And for as long as I can remember, people have been telling her it’s the BEST toffee they’ve ever tasted. People wait all year for this toffee, and it’s easy to see why:

  • The taste is just a beautiful butter caramel flavor, everything you want from classic toffee without anything else to get in the way.
  • The texture is perfectly crunchy without being sticky.
  • It’s covered with a generous amount of milk chocolate (no skimping here!) and your favorite chopped nuts on top.

How Much Toffee Does This Recipe Make?

This recipe makes a full 9×13 pan of thick toffee, or a cookie sheet of thinner toffee. That works out to about 2.25 pounds of candy, or approximately 8 cups when broken into bite size pieces. If you want to give it as gifts, you can divide it up into eight small bags with about one cup in each, or 4-6 larger bags if desired.

Ingredients

This English Toffee recipe is very traditional, and uses only sugar, butter, and water for the toffee, plus chocolate and nuts on top. Some recipes add vanilla, salt or corn syrup to the toffee mixture, but I think all of these are unnecessary: butter and sugar cooked together to perfect don’t need any extra flavoring!

I use Hershey’s milk chocolate chips because they are easy to work with, but you can use a fancier brand or a nice dipping chocolate if you like, or even semisweet chocolate if you prefer. I prefer toasted almonds on my toffee, but my mom makes it with walnuts; feel free to use your favorite nuts, such as chopped pecans.

You may notice that this recipe calls for water in the toffee, which isn’t strictly necessary. However, as you cook toffee the butter and sugar can separate, especially if you are cooking it too hot. Adding the water helps keep the boiling temperature lower and prevent that problem.

How to Make Classic English Toffee

I used to be intimidated about making homemade toffee because candy making seemed really hard, especially back when I didn’t own a candy thermometer. But I’ve found the perfect hint for telling when it’s done AND streamlined the process a bit so it doesn’t take as many steps. I’ll share all my tips so your toffee turns out great on the first try! One thing to note is that you will need a heavy saucepan to make toffee – if you try to use a cheap lightweight saucepan it will end up burning.

Prep the Pan and the Nuts

Before you start making toffee, you need to prep a baking dish or cookie sheet to pour the hot toffee out onto. I use a 9×13 pyrex baking dish lined with parchment paper. That makes a nice thick toffee. If you prefer thinner toffee, you can line a cookie sheet with parchment paper instead.

Next, if you’re using almonds you’ll want to toast them, so spread out a cup of almonds on a baking sheet and placing them in a 350 degree oven for 7-8 minutes.

After 7-8 minutes they’ll smell delicious. Remove them from the oven and let them cool slightly, then chop them into small pieces as shown.

Cook the Toffee

While the nuts are in the oven toasting, start making your toffee. In a heavy bottom medium or large saucepan, combine the butter, sugar and water. Bring it to a boil over medium heat, stirring it to combine as the butter melts. Try not to splash sugar up on the sides of the pot as your stir. The mixture will foam up quite a bit larger as it begins to boil, so make sure you are using a saucepan with plenty of room. It will be light yellow at this point.

Once the toffee mixture is boiling, you don’t need to stir very often at all. Too much stirring can cause the mixture to separate, leaving you with a greasy mess. I use a wooden spoon and only stir once or twice every five minutes, just to ensure nothing is burning at the bottom of the saucepan. In the meantime, pull your almonds out of the oven and get them chopped.

You’ll continue to boil the toffee mixture on MEDIUM and it won’t look like much is happening for the first fifteen minutes or so. After a bit, the mixture will decrease in size and you’ll see that it’s beginning to turn a golden color. This is when you’ll want to stir a little more often (but don’t stir too quickly; again too much stirring can cause separation).

Note: If you aren’t getting a nice boil over medium heat, turn the burner up to medium high, but no higher.

Toffee needs to cook until the hard crack stage, which is at least 300 degrees Fahrenheit (I think 310 degrees is better). If you have a candy thermometer, you can certainly use it. But I find that getting the toffee to the right color is actually a better indicator of doneness. And the right color is: exactly the color of peanut butter.

I like to have a spoon of peanut butter sitting on the counter so I can compare it to the cooking toffee. Once the color matches, the toffee is ready. You’ll also notice the toffee smells amazing at this point. Give it a couple good stirs, and then you can pour it out into your prepared 9×13 pan or prepared baking sheet.

It will spread out on it’s own, but you can also use an offset spatula to smooth the top if you’d like. You’ll probably see some bubbles, but those will disappear as it begins to cool.

Top with Chocolate and Nuts

Allow the toffee to sit for about ten minutes, which will let it start firming up. Then sprinkle the chocolate chips on tops, spreading them out evenly. After about five minutes they’ll be melty and you can spread the chocolate out with an offset spatula.

Finally, sprinkle the chopped nuts on top, evenly distributing. Gently press the nuts into the melted chocolate.

Now you need to wait until the toffee is completely cool and the chocolate has set up. This is the hard part! Depending on how warm your house is, this could take 6 or more hours, so I always like to make toffee in the evening and just let it sit out to cool overnight.

Once the chocolate is hard, you can break the toffee into bite size pieces and enjoy! I use the parchment paper to remove the toffee from the pan and set it on a cutting board, then use a large sharp knife to chop it into small pieces. It stores well at room temperature for a couple of weeks in an airtight container.

Mom's Homemade English Toffee Recipe (14)

Let’s Make

Classic English Toffee

5 from 4 votes

Prep Time: 1 hour hr

Cooling Time: 6 hours hrs

Rate Recipe Print Recipe

This is the best English Toffee recipe, and it's super easy! You only need five ingredients to make classic toffee that everyone will love.

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups Butter 3 sticks
  • 2 cups Sugar
  • 1/3 cup Water
  • 2 cups Milk Chocolate Chips
  • 1 cup Almonds

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Equipment

  • Heavy Bottom Saucepan

Instructions

  • Line a 9×13 cake pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

  • Place almonds on a cookie sheet and toast in a 350 degree oven. Set a timer for 7-8 minutes.

  • Meanwhile, place butter, sugar and water in a medium large heavy bottom saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring ingredients to combine as the butter melts.

  • Continue to boil on medium, stirring only occasionally, until mixture begins to turn golden brown. Total cook time with be approximately 20 minutes. During this time your almonds will finish toasting; remove them from the oven and chop them into small pieces.

  • Continue cooking the toffee until mixture is the color of peanut butter or 305-310 degrees Fahrenheit. Give it a couple good stirs, then pour it out onto the prepared baking dish or cookie pan.

  • Wait ten minutes, then sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the toffee. Wait a few more minutes, then spread the chocolate out into an even layer and sprinkle on the nuts. Gently press the nuts into the chocolate.

  • Allow the toffee to cool completely and the chocolate to set up completely before cutting or breaking into bite size pieces.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Candy

FAQ

Do I need a candy thermometer to make toffee?

No! I never use a candy thermometer when I make toffee. It’s easy to tell when it’s ready – just compare it to a spoon of peanut butter. When the color matches, it’s done!

My toffee separated so I have lots of melted butter. What happened?

If you cook your toffee on too high of heat OR stir it too often, it can separate. Make sure you are using a heavy bottom saucepan that will evenly distribute heat. If your toffee has just begun to separate, you can try two things: put it on a lower temperature and gently stir in a tablespoon of water; that may help it come back together.

My toffee is a little sticky. What happened?

If the toffee gets cooked all the way to 310 degrees it will be nice and crunchy without sticking to your teeth. If it is sticky, that means it wasn’t cooked long enough. Try cooking it longer next time, until it’s the same color as peanut butter.

What if I cooked it too long?

If you are worried you cooked the toffee too long, let it cool without adding the chocolate and nuts. After about 20 minutes it should be cool enough that you can break off a little piece and taste it. Very overcooked toffee will taste burnt, but if it’s just a little over it will likely still be fine. If it tastes fine to you, just melt your chocolate, pour it over the toffee, and add the nuts.

Mom's Homemade English 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.

Why is my English toffee so hard? ›

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 .

Why do you put baking soda in toffee? ›

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.

Why does the butter separate when making English toffee? ›

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).

Should English toffee be refrigerated? ›

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 toffee 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.

Do you refrigerate English toffee? ›

+ Can it be refrigerated? Yes, but it needs to be set out of the refrigerator to bring to room temperature before serving.

Do you stir toffee constantly? ›

It's important while the toffee cooks to only stir it occasionally. Constant stirring can cause the toffee to crystallize and separate. For those of you that need to know exactly how often you should stir, I would suggest erring on the side of not stirring more than stirring.

What can go wrong when making toffee? ›

Common toffee making mistakes:
  • I started with way too high of a heat. (At least, I think this was an issue.) I set my portable cooktop at 260 degrees F.
  • I stirred too quickly. I didn't realize this could be an issue.
  • I didn't add a dash of salt. They say you can save a ruined batch of toffee by adding a dash of salt.
Dec 13, 2017

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.

Why is my toffee chewy and not crunchy? ›

Low and slow

Simmering the syrup for English toffee to the requisite 300°F temperature can (and should) be a slow process — up to 20 minutes or so. 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.

Is light or dark brown sugar better for toffee? ›

Taste is obvious: sweets made with dark brown sugar will have a slightly deeper flavor with those notes of caramel and toffee I mentioned.

What can I use instead of cream of tartar for toffee? ›

Use white vinegar, which, like lemon juice is acidic, for a similar effect. We recommend replacing the cream of tartar with twice as much lemon juice or white vinegar.

How to know when toffee is done? ›

Last, keep temping toffee until thermometer says 285-295...at 285 do the ice water test by dropping a dot of toffee into some ice water...it should be brittle. If so, it's done. It will be a very dark amber color. Pour into foil lined pan, put on chocolate and nuts and, VOILA!

What's the difference between butterscotch and English toffee? ›

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.

Why does chocolate not stick to toffee? ›

Chocolate chips have a non-melting coating to help them keep their shape. But when they melt, the coating can prevent the chocolate from sticking to the toffee. Sometimes the chocolate melts at a temperature that makes it shrink when it hardens, pulling it away from the toffee layer.

What exactly is English toffee? ›

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.

What flavor is English toffee? ›

Toffee is often combined with nuts such as almonds and semi-sweet chocolate to create classic English toffee. This is done by spreading the hot toffee out flat over a sheet pan and topping it with semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Why is it called English toffee? ›

The name “English toffee” comes from the crunchy “toff” sound the candy makes when you bite into it. As the candy became popular, shops began selling it under the name “English toffee” or sometimes just “toffee.”

Is English toffee the same as butterscotch? ›

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.

References

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