Homemade English Toffee (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between English toffee and regular toffee? ›

Americanized toffee may include nuts, while a completely traditional British toffee will not. On the other hand, English toffee uses pure cane sugar, brown sugar, or molasses as its sweet base and always involves chocolate.

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.

Toffee is butterscotch that has been cooked for a longer period of time. Toffee begins as a base of butter and brown sugar that is gradually cooked to the hard-crack sugar stage between 295 and 309 degrees Fahrenheit.

The difference between caramel and toffee is greater, as caramel has a more liquid consistency and is usually pure sugar (it doesn't contain butter or flour). Still, the taste of caramel, fudge, and toffee is relatively similar, as they are all made from mostly sugar (as well as butter in the case of fudge and toffee).

For better crunch, add baking soda

Those bubbles remain trapped in the syrup as it cools in the pan, yielding toffee whose consistency is lightly crunchy rather than hard: think light-textured American-style biscotti vs.

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).

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.

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

Mel's Dumbed Down Version: patience, moderate heat and heavy-bottoms (see saucepan note above) make the best toffee. It's important while the toffee cooks to only stir it occasionally. Constant stirring can cause the toffee to crystallize and separate.

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.

Is toffee just hard caramel? ›

Toffee is made from sugar and butter. Chefs cook toffee longer than caramel so it reaches a hardened, brittle state. (Check out Aunt Rose's Fantastic Butter Toffee for a tasty example.)

Although named English toffee, it bears little resemblance to the wide range of confectionery known as toffee currently available in the United Kingdom. However, one can still find this product in the UK under the name "butter crunch". Conversely, in Italy they are known as "mou candies".

What's the difference between English and American toffee? The main difference is that traditional English toffee is created without nuts, while American toffee is created with a variety of nuts. The most common nuts being the almond.

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 .

English toffee and American toffee diverged with the preferred use of sugar type. English toffee is made with brown sugar, while American-style toffee, known as buttercrunch is made with white table sugar (granulated sugar). Buttercrunch is typically dusted with crushed almonds or other nuts.

There is something wonderful about the absolutely shattering crunch of toffee. The high-volume bite alone is enough to keep you snacking on a bowl of this confection, but when it's combined with buttery, caramelly flavor with just a tinge of salt and bitterness it becomes positively irresistible.

Toffee and caramel have some similarities, but they have a few key differences. Caramel often contains milk or cream, which gives it a thicker and creamier consistency. The candies are also heated to different temperatures during the cooking process.