How To Make English Toffee
11 Comments | Written on December 8, 2010 at 5:00 am , by Kristina Vanni
English toffee is a classic Christmas treat and makes an impressive gift! Learn step-by-step how to make this festive candy at home. As you can see this is an old family recipe and I have been making it for years! The recipe is yellowing and is splattered with bits of butter and chocolate. Candy making isn’t difficult, it just takes patience and a lot of stirring over the stove top! Give it a try!
In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.
Slowly add granulated sugar, stirring constantly until it dissolves. Do not stir in a circle, instead, turn mixture over while stirring to help butter absorb sugar.
Add almonds and stir until mixture reaches hard-crack stage, 300 degrees on a candy thermometer.
At this temperature, the color of the mixture will be dark amber and puffs of steam will emerge as it is stirred. This will take 35-45 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt chocolates in the top of a double boiler over gently simmering water.
Pour mixture onto a buttered 12 X 18 baking sheet. Spread with a spoon to even out toffee.
Allow it to rest about 5 minutes, then pour on melted chocolate.
Spread evenly with a spoon and sprinkle pecans over surface.
Allow toffee to harden 6-8 hours or overnight. Using hands, break into pieces. Store in an airtight container in a cool place.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound lightly salted butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup slivered raw almonds
- 4 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate
- 8 squares (1 ounce each) semisweet chocolate
- 1 1/2 cups ground pecans
Directions:
In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Slowly add granulated sugar, stirring constantly until it dissolves. Do not stir in a circle, instead, turn mixture over while stirring to help butter absorb sugar. Add almonds and stir until mixture reaches hard-crack stage, 300 degrees on a candy thermometer. At this temperature, the color of the mixture will be dark amber and puffs of steam will emerge as it is stirred. This will take 35-45 minutes. Meanwhile, melt chocolates in the top of a double boiler over gently simmering water. Pour mixture onto a buttered 12 X 18 baking sheet. Spread with a spoon to even out toffee. Allow it to rest about 5 minutes, then pour on melted chocolate. Spread evenly with a spoon and sprinkle pecans over surface. Allow toffee to harden 6-8 hours or overnight. Using hands, break into pieces. Store in an airtight container in a cool place.
Number of Servings: 3 pounds
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11 Responses to “How To Make English Toffee”
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This looks delicious! Any tips on buying a candy thermometer? Having not made candy before, it’s not something I have on hand…
Thank you for this. This is the first year I am going to make candy. I usually make a ton of cookies and rum cakes. This sounds reasonable simple and TASTY!
Thanks again
Connie
During the 35-45 minute stage, after the thermometer has reached 300 degrees, is it necessary to stir the entire time? Or just sporadically stir the candy?
Is there a way to save recipies?
I shall make this for our kids still kids to us youngest 26 I know that both they and their partners shall enjoy it, I think both Mum and Dad shall as well
is there any way to save recipes thanks barbara
Pantry to Plate, a candy thermometer can be purchased at most department stores such as Target or Wal-Mart. I wouldn’t make candy without one. I just don’t like guessing. I have heard that some people purchase special candy thermometers for chocolate, especially when tempering it. I would imagine those are purchased at cooking stores. Hope thi helps.
To Barbara: To save this recipe to your computer. highlight what you want to save, then right click for copy. then open a new document in your computer, right click to save. OR once you are on this site, go to ‘favorites’ in the upper left of your screen, open it and click add to favorites….then you always have it. Several other sites, like Allrecipes.com allow you to save recipes in a ‘recipe box’ on their site, Bettycrocker.com, pillsbury.com. I prefer to save in my documents, and have a file there labeled recipes. Hope that helped.
I just made this using a digital thermeter I bought at Tuesday Morning.
I am happy to say it turned out GREAT.
Thank you!
[...] grew up with my mom’s English Toffee every Christmas. It is absolute perfection, but it can also be a bit temperamental and definitely [...]