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How to make English Toffee the easy way. You’ll love this homemade Christmas treat perfect for gifting or parties.
Delicous & Famous English Toffee
It wouldn’t be a Christmas season without making my mom’s 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.
This English Toffee is so simple to make and tastes delicious!
Like, melt in your mouth delicious.
You can package it up alone for neighbor or teacher gifts or set it out at your next holiday party.
How to Make English Toffee
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.
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.
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 toffee mixture has reaches that temperature, you pour the super hot, sweet-smelling hot toffee mixture onto an extra large cookie sheet.
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. Sprinkle chopped walnuts, or your favorite nuts, on top at this point.
6. Take the cookie sheet 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.
English Toffee is Great For:
- Neighbor gifts
- teacher gifts
- visitors who stop by– you can package in little cellophane bags and tie with a ribbon for a quick gift
The Best English Toffee Recipe
If you’d like to try this English Toffee, here’s the recipe. 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!
Ingredients
- 1 lb. REAL butter, not margarine
- 1 cup water
- 2 1/2 cups white sugar
- 4 Tablespoons light corn syrup
- about 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- chopped walnuts, if desired
- candy thermometer
- wooden spoon
Directions
- 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.
Save this for later! Enjoy one of our favorite Christmas goodies!
13 comments
Thanks for sharing. My grandma made delicious toffee and always had a tin of it in her refrigerator. I have always been too scared to try it since I did not inherit her culinary genius. You give me courage. Maybe I will have to try it.
I just made this toffee and it is amazing! I didn’t use the chocolate or the nuts as I just needed the toffee part. Thanks so much for sharing, this recipe it’s a keeper.
I’m so glad you loved it! It’s our favorite too!
I made this last year for Christmas for myself as well as for gifts and everyone loved it.
I am making it again this year as I have had lots of requests for it. I also make a lot of other candies as well because my kids (5 of them) have children with families of their own and I make enough different candies to give each family an assortment of candies for Christmas.so I make at least between 15 – 20 tins of candy and this is one of my favorites, it is quick , easy and delicious . Thanks for this recipe
Your comment makes me so happy to hear! This was my mom’s famous recipe. She passed away when I was 15, but every time I make it, I think of her! I’m glad you LOVE it! I’m currently eating a few pieces myself. 🙂
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My butter separated what did I do wrong. I followed your instructions
what altitude are you at? I’ve never had that problem, but wondering if altitude or your thermometer could be off? I’m so sorry!
I love this recipe. My husband requested I make it for him every year!
So happy to hear! It’s a keeper! Merry Christmas!