The Easiest Microwave Toffee Recipe (A Step By Step Guide) (2024)

FAQs

What is the process of toffee? ›

Toffee is made from sugar mixed with milk, butter or cream plus an ingredient such as lemon juice or golden syrup to stop it crystallising. The mixture is heated to between 140C and 154C ('soft crack' stage and 'hard crack' stage), then allowed to cool and set.

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. Think you can save time by bringing the syrup to a full rolling, popping boil in order for it to darken more quickly? Think again.

If the two elements melt unevenly it can result in separation. If you have good stovetop burners, we recommend turning them to medium-low to allow the butter and sugar to melt gently in the beginning stages. If the heat is too high, but butter might melt too quickly and can separate from the sugar.

This toffee is cooked initially to 310°F (154°C), then the salt and baking soda are added, creating carbon dioxide. The foaming and bubbling aerate the candy somewhat, making the texture lighter and the candy easier to bite into.

Butter is added in the final stages to add flavor and smoothness and inhibit large crystal formation. Use unsalted butter so you can add a small amount of salt (¼ teaspoon per stick of butter) to the sugar/liquid mixture.

The difference is mainly in the candy-making process: taffy is pulled and stretched until it's soft and chewy. Toffee, on the other hand, won't stick in your teeth like taffy, because it is boiled, shaped, and allowed to harden into a delicious, glossy slab.

Stirring too quickly or too often can cause the toffee to separate. Moderate the heat as needed – turn it down if the toffee is boiling or cooking too fast so it doesn't burn.

Cook until it's dark amber and 285 degrees F. Pour the toffee onto a prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle the chocolate chips onto the toffee, let soften, and spread in an even layer. Sprinkle the nuts over the chocolate.

If your toffee doesn't have a hard texture (where you can snap it in half) you did not cook it long enough. Again, the 5-minutes is just a guide. Cook it until it is the color of a brown bag.

This will take about 5 minutes. NOTE:[i] Most recipes recommend constant stirring from start to finish to prevent butter and sugar separation. Constant stirring will not hurt the mixture, but I have found it is unnecessary. You will stir the mixture a little as it cooks.

Should homemade 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.

As the toffee cools and the molten sugar crystals become solid again, they are attracted to the 'seed' forming new lumps of tiny crystals – hence the grainy texture. This can also happen if the toffee is stirred, or agitated, after it has begun to boil or on cooling (as happened with this pink-tinted toffee).

Cream of tartar is a white powder sold in the baking aisle that's commonly used to stabilize whipped egg whites in meringues and cakes, prevent sugar crystallization in candies and caramel, and act as the activating ingredient in baking powder.

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.

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.

When you heat the sucrose molecule to the right temperature it breaks apart and forms caramel (caramelization). Since sucrose molecules hate being split up it tries to reform into sugar crystals. This whole process then creates toffee, otherwise known as the Maillard reaction.

Toffee is a sweet, buttery confection made by cooking butter and sugar together to a specific temperature and letting it cool until it reaches a crisp, crunchy texture. “Toffee is sweet and buttery, sometimes sticky and always crunchy! It can be a blank canvas for adding nuts or dried fruit.

Different chemicals are present before (sugar) and after (caramel) the cooking process. Therefore, this is a chemical change. The irreversible nature of caramelization is also an indicator that this transformation is a chemical change.

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.