You are going to love this super buttery English toffee recipe. It is so easy to make and incredibly delicious to eat. With homemade toffee covered in melted chocolate and chopped nuts, it is an easy candy recipe that can’t be beaten!
English toffee is a great sweet treat to eat whenever, but it also makes for a great addition to your holiday cookie exchanges. It’s a little trickier than making homemade peanut brittle, but if you can do one then you can definitely do the other. So stop buying your English toffee from the stores and try your hand at making it on the stove, with this easy English toffee recipe!
Tips for making English Toffee
I highly recommend that when making this recipe, you have some parchment paper on hand to line a baking sheet with (or to lay on your table/counter). It makes the final steps easier and reduces your cleanup by a significant amount (it’s so worth the investment to buy parchment paper!)
Keep a candy thermometer on hand so you can check for the doneness when making this candy toffee. You want it to reach 300 degrees or the hard-boil stage. This is when you can drop a small amount of the mix into cold water and it turns to a hard brittle thread. A candy thermometer also helps to keep you from burning the toffee mixture.
You’ll be stirring and waiting for about 13 minutes before the Toffee is ready to be poured but during that time don’t be afraid of burning it if it hasn’t reached the 300 degrees. It should be about the color of the skin on an almond and having self-doubt while making candy is a very common occurrence (even for me!)
What’s The Difference Between Toffee and Caramel?
Caramel and Toffee have a lot in common, and a few differences. The biggest difference between the two is that toffee is cooked to a much higher temperature, which causes it to become hard and crunchy.
How Long Does It Take For Toffee To Harden?
I like to leave my English toffee on the table or counter for at least an hour to harden but if you are in a hurry, you can keep in in the fridge for about 30 minutes to help it harden more quickly.
Homemade English Toffee Ingredients
-1 cup sugar
-1 cup butter or margarine
-1/4 cup water
-1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips {I always use more!}
-1/2 cup finely chopped pecans {I used walnuts}
How to Make Homemade English Toffee
Heat the sugar, butter, and water to boiling in heavy 2-quart saucepan, stirring constantly.
Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 13 minutes, stirring constantly.
Get it to reach 300°F on a candy thermometer or until a small amount of mixture dropped into a cup of very cold water separates into hard, brittle threads. Watch carefully so mixture does not burn.
Let stand at room temperature about 1 hour, or refrigerate if desired, until firm. Break into bite-size pieces and keep stored in an airtight container.
Note that I doubled this recipe to serve a larger amount of people and the recipe turned out great!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter or margarine
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup p finely chopped pecans {I used walnuts}
Instructions
- Heat sugar, butter and water to boiling in heavy 2-quart saucepan, stirring constantly; reduce heat to medium.
- Cook about 13 minutes, stirring constantly, to 300°F on candy thermometer or until small amount of mixture dropped into cup of very cold water separates into hard, brittle threads. Watch carefully so mixture does not burn.
- Immediately pour toffee onto a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. If necessary, quickly spread mixture to 1/4-inch thickness.
- Sprinkle with chocolate chips; let stand about 1 minute or until chips are completely softened. Spread softened chocolate evenly over toffee. Sprinkle with pecans.
- Let stand at room temperature about 1 hour, or refrigerate if desired, until firm. Break into bite-size pieces. Store in airtight container. Enjoy!
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How Do You Break Toffee?
If you have your toffee on a baking sheet, parchment paper, or piece of foil you can simply lift up your cooled and hardened toffee a few inches above a hard solid surface such as a table or counter and then drop it. The impact will cause the toffee to break. You can also lay plastic wrap over the top and hit it with a hammer if you wish. Note that your chocolate may not break, but the toffee underneath will so gently pull the pieces apart.
Why Is My English Toffee Separating?
You may notice that the chocolate top and the toffee bottom begin to separate when the toffee begins to sweat. This is a reaction due to a change in temperature, so if your toffee is kept somewhere cold for an extended period of time and then moved somewhere warm, this could cause it to happen.
Another cause could be because you didn’t stir enough when the candy was in the cooking process.
Why Is My Toffee Too Soft?
Toffee will naturally get chewier over time as it ages, but if you notice your English toffee being chewy from the start the cause could have had something to do with the cooking process. When cooking, you need to make sure that you stir enough because otherwise the butter can separate from the sugar and cause a chewy texture instead of a hard one like you desired.
Candy Recipes That Will Satisfy Your Sweet Cravings
- Peanut Clusters
- Buckeye Balls
- Caramel Marshmallow Pops
- Smores On a Stick
- Marshmallow Caramel Popcorn
- Salted Nut Roll Bars
- Homemade Peppermint Patties
- Valentine Candy Bark
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bark
- Rolo Pretzel Turtles
- Homemade Almond Joy Bars
This butter English toffee recipe is so delicious and simple that you are going to love making homemade candy! With chocolate, chopped nuts, and homemade toffee, this recipe is incredible!
[…] year during the holidays. It’s one of my favorite treats! Every year I tend to make one classic Toffee recipe, then a variation- like my Cashew Toffee. This year I needed something a little faster and simpler- […]