Making Toffee
Toffee is a rich tasting sweet treat with a glossy surface that is made up of simple ingredients. While there are different types of toffee that are made with various other ingredients (such as chocolate or almonds) for flavor, the most common kind is brown in color and made of three ingredients or less: butter, boiled sugar or molasses, and (sometimes) flour. As simple a recipe as it is, toffee makes a delightful gift for the holidays, birthdays or other special occasion. Below, you'll find the recipe for traditional toffee, but also extra ingredients to add to flavor your toffee.
Depending on how you make the toffee, some kinds have a soft and sticky texture, while others are brittle and harder. This is often dependent on the temperature used when cooking, but also upon the mixing of ingredients. The temperature of the toffee needs to be 300 degrees, in order for it to reach the "hard crack" stage. See far below for the different types of candy textures.
Other Toffee Ingredients
Some cooks like to make their toffee with vanilla. If you would like to try this, add vanilla extract after you've reached the 300-degree stage, then pour it in. Some people like to add chocolate to their toffee. If you like, once you have poured the toffee onto a buttered tray, pour about 6 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips over the toffee, and wait tow minutes. In that time, the chocolate chips will melt from the heat of the toffee, and you can use a spatula to spread it across the toffee, for a nice, sweet layer of chocolate.
And now for the toffee recipe you 've been waiting for:
Traditional Toffee
Ingredients: 2 cups of salted butter, 2 cups of sugar
What You'll Need
- wooden spook or plastic spatula that is heat-proof
- candy thermometer
- buttered cookie sheet with lipped edge
- butter knife
- large bottom-heavy, large cooking pot (about 6 quarts)
Directions: Making toffee is typically best done on a cool, dry day. If it's humid or hot out, this could affect the temperature and consistency of the mixture. Keep in mind that when you begin stirring the toffee, it's best to keep stirring so that the ingredients do not separate.
Step One
Place the butter and sugar into the cooking pot and mix over medium heat. Allow the butter to melt and mix with the sugar. Take the candy thermometer and attach it to the side of the pot, but don't let it touch the bottom of the pot; just make sure it touches the ingredients so you get an accurate reading candy temperature.
Step Two
Stir the toffee with a wooden spoon or plastic spatula of medium or medium-low heat. As it heats, the toffee will foam and bubble and begin to turn brown.
As it nears finishing, the toffee should should reach 300 degrees and turn light brown. It will reach what is called the hard crack stage.
Step Three
The toffee is down, so you need to pour it into the buttered cookie sheet. Be careful as the candy will be very hot and can burn the skin! Using the spoon or spatula, gently spread it around the cookie sheet until it lies evenly in the pan.
Let toffee cool for one hour.
Step Four
Now it's time to break up the toffee. Using a clean kitchen towel, cover the toffee and stretch the towel over the sheet. Holding the ends off the sheet with the towels at either end, flip the sheet. The toffee should slide out, but if not, bang the pan against a counter or on the table until it releases.
Using a wooden spoon or other device, begin at the center and work outwards,breaking the toffee into pieces,
To keep fresh, store unused toffee in the refrigerator. Allow toffee to reach room temperature before serving.
Different Types of Toffee
Some toffee is made with slightly different ingredients which change not only the flavor, but the texture. For example, if toffee is made with baking soda and vinegar, it can have a honeycomb appearance. This type of toffee is known as honeycomb, cinder or sponge toffee. One of the most famous and popular types of toffee is English Toffee. It has a buttery flavor and is made with almonds. One of the reasons for its popularity is that the Heath brand of candy bar is essentially made with a center of English toffee. Here are some of the other different kinds of toffee:
Peanut Butter Toffee: Peanut butter (crunchy kind, if desired) is quickly added once the heat reaches correct heat
English Toffee: This type of toffee is made with almonds, dark chocolate, sugar, syrup and butter.
Milk Chocolate Toffee: Made with chips if milk chocolate
Dark Chocolate Toffee: dark chocolate is added
White Chocolate Toffee: made with white, instead of dark or milk chocolate
Dark Toffee: made with dark brown sugar (instead of white sugar) and molasses
Pecan Toffee: contains chopped pecans and semi-sweet chocolate chips, if desired
German Chocolate Toffee: Made with shredded coconut, toasted pecans and semi-sweet chocolate chips
Toffee Fudge: includes light-brown sugar and pieces of semi-sweet chocolate
Toffee with Nuts: simply made with your choice of pecans, almonds, walnuts or macadamia nuts. You can use the nuts separately or a mixture. Simply sprinkle over the toffee as it is cooling int he pan.
Candy Apples: apples on sticks are coated with melted toffee, and sometimes covered with nuts
Candy Textures
Candy is made in different texture finishes, according to the degree in temperature that the sugar is cooked. An example of thread candy would be cotton candy, while and example of soft ball candy would be fudge. The different sugar stages are called:
- Soft ball, 234-240 degrees
- Firm ball, 244-248 degrees
- Hard ball, 250-266 degrees
- Soft crack, 270-290 degrees
- Hard crack, 295-310 degrees (toffee)
- Clear liquid, 320 degrees
- Brown liquid, 338 degrees
