Best Toffee Ever - Super Easy Recipe

I have been making this toffee for 40 years. I cook it until 300 degrees. You have to stir constantly or it burns. Also, I make it in a 9x13 or 10x14 pan. I butter the bottom of the pan, spread the crushed almonds over the butter and pour the toffee mixture over that. I sprinkle the chocolate chips on top, let them melt and then spread. Mmmm, good

I just made this recipe. I just wanted to post a note for others. The recipe says to pour into a large baking pan. Use a 9x13 or something similar. I used a cookie sheet and my toffee is extremely thin as a result. Just FYI

have also microwaved this... 1 c. sugar 1/2 c. butter 1/4 c. water 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 c. semi sweet chocolate chips 1/2 c. chopped nuts Combine sugar, butter and water in a deep 2 quart bowl. Microwave, uncovered 4 minutes. Stir. Microwave, uncovered, 4 to 6 minutes, or until candy reaches the hard crack stage, 300 degrees. Stir in vanilla. Pour onto greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Let stand until chips are softened; spread evenly over toffee. Sprinkle with nuts, pressing them into chocolate. Refrigerate to set. When cool, break into pieces.

I typically make 1C Butter/1C Sugar, and add a splash of imitation vanilla. While stirring we preheat the oven to 350°. Once the toffee is hard enough for the chips, we pop it in for 60-90 sec and get those chips soft enough to spread like frosting. Sometimes we top with crushed peppermint, or sea salt.

I’ve never tried using chocolate chips, I’ve always used melting chocolate disks, but every store was out of them and so I googled and found this and it worked like a charm. For the ones who don’t have a candy thermometer, here’s what I do and it’s perfect every time. First I use 2 cups sugar, 1 pound of butter. You melt your butter and sugar together on med heat and stir. Do not walk away, stir it constantly. You will notice the mixture looks really oily and separated, keep stirring, you will then notice it will start to look foamy and like they are coming together, keep stirring until the mixture separates again and looks a little oily. At this point the color will start to turn brownish and as you continue to keep stirring, that mixture will come together again and start looking like a smooth carmel. Drop a bit in cold water and see if it hardens, taste it. If it hardens and it’s a brown amber color, it’s done! Don’t panic and take it off the heat too soon. The color will be too light. Pour on cookie sheets and spread it out and do it fast. Drop the chocolate and nuts on it and refrigerate. Take it out, flip it over and do the same to the other side.

This toffee is always a favorite. I toast slivered almonds (spread almonds on parchment at 350 for 10 minutes approx., turning once) and then break them up (put in plastic bags and pound lightly with a mallot) - half goes in the butter mixture and half sprinkled on top.

For those complaining about butter separation, you clearly need to do your homework. Candy making requires some knowledge and, yes, trial and error. 4 Tips… 1. Be sure butter is at room temp before you start to melt the butter and sugar together. These two melt at a different rate and making sure the butter is at room temp will help prevent issues. 2. Water in the butter evaporates too quickly when you cook too hot. Start the melting on medium low until they are well combined and melted then increase heat GRADUALLY! May take longer to cook it but less chance of separation. 3. If you shift the temp abruptly because you get impatient you will literally shock the toffee and cause separation and/or graininess. 4. Use a quality, thick bottomed pan. This ensures even cooking. Can’t overestimate this one! If you do get separation….remove toffee from heat and add a tablespoon of warm water. Mix until combined then slowly heat up again. Never use more than 4 tbsp of water per 2 cups of butter. I have done this and it works. Finally….before you trash a recipe, make certain it’s not user error! Cheers!

Great recipe and have beenmaking every Holiday for friends & family-excellent and always a crowd favorite...even with the often non-"desserters." I've added a smidge of baking soda 1/2 tsp/ 1/2 tsp water/ 1/2 tsp vanilla mixture after pulling it off the at the heat at 300F. It's amazing without but this gives it a smooth, almost butter finger like crunch.Cheers

Toffee seems so intimidating for a lot of people, including myself. Using these directions, this was my third time ever trying it and first time with it successfully coming out right. The directions were what was most beneficial to me. I read a lot of other ones, watched videos and only changed it up slightly, by adding 1/8c of water to the butter, sugar and salt vs 1/4 cup other recipes rec. I also added a small splash of vanilla as soon as I took it off the burner. We don't do nuts so I did not include those. I have no idea if it would turn out right without the water, but if you stick to these these instructions, you should be good to go. Unless I was grabbing something real quick, I constantly stirred while butter was melting. I did not use any special pot--just a slightly large stainless steel one I thought would be a good size. I have no idea if it is considered, "heavy bottom." I had it on a temp of 4 on my flat top electric stove, so slightly under medium. For the instruction of stirring only 2-3x once butter has melted and starts to boil, I did just that with about 4 mins in between stirs. I also used a thermometer which I never had used for candy before. I looked for the amber color and took it off the stove at around 299. It came out just as I thought it should. An hour didn't seem quite enough for chilling in fridge as I noticed the chocolate was melting on my hands as I broke it apart--maybe 3 hours would be best. I studied toffee making like I was trying to ace a test for my 3rd attempt, and this recipe, but more so directions helped a lot. Well wishes on your toffee journey!

This toffee is the best I’ve ever made. I made 4 batches for holiday gifts and every one of them absolutely loved it. I did do a couple things differently. I used salted butter, stirred constantly afraid it would burn and used milk chocolate chips for half the batches. I did add a tsp of vanilla at the end of cooking. Chocolate melted completely on poured toffee and sooo easy to do ! Thank you for this delicious recipe!

This turned out very well but I did have the butter separation as others described. I cooked to about 295'ish and checked hard crack with water test. Removed from heat. I then switched from a wooden spoon to a metal whisk and STIRRED (not the fast whisking motion) the butter back in. Worked perfectly.

I have made this a few times now. One trick I found is, after adding the chocolate chips, put a cookie sheet over the mixture to help the chips soften.

it was realy easy and yummy but my butter wouldn’t filly combine so i had to soak some ofm it up with a paper towel

Made as is using a candy thermometer,keeping the heat on medium,always turns out greast and loved at Christmas bazzars for the dessert section.

Pool of butter....total failure

It sounds easy and delicious but to do the recipe 2X and 4X it doesn’t give the size pan to pour it in. Thank you.

I have made this recipe a few times, once as written and then making some changes. As written, it is a great recipe, easy to make and greatly appreciated by everyone I shared the final product with. It is good if you need a gluten free sweet treat. The second time I made it, I put a layer of waffle pretzels on the bottom of the pan. It added a nice bit of saltiness to the sweet of the toffee. The next time I was making it as a birthday gift for a friend. She greatly loves coffee, so I added 2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder to the toffee. This added just a hint of coffee flavor, but was very tasty. I highly recommend this recipe and encourage you to experiment with it a bit.

I made this recipe twice in a row. Both times a Lot of butter separated from the mixture when it was close to finished. I even added more sugar to use up that butter and that helped but still had 1/8- 1/4 of my butter left when I poured the toffee into the pan. Also it was not finished nor amber colored by the time the temp reaches 285°.. I used a cast iron pan.

Bro, the flavors are unreal.

Too much butter for the amount of sugar.