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This is the best English toffee recipe I have ever had, it’s easy and has the perfect crunch. It is so good with chopped peanuts or almonds in the center.
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This English toffee recipe is the best! It comes out perfectly every time and has just the right amount of crunch. Not too soft, and not so hard it breaks a tooth. Make a batch and watch it disappear! It is perfect for family, friends, and gifting to neighbors. This homemade English toffee is one of several delicious options. Make up a big batch and deliver it to your friends. Believe me, once they taste it, they will be salivating over your friendship, and looking forward to many more years of knowing you!
I like to make this in either a 9×13 pan or in the center of a cookie sheet. If you want to make enough English toffee to fill an entire cookie sheet, I would suggest doubling the recipe. This sized batch is perfect though because it doesn’t fill the entire cookie sheet. It makes a big circle of toffee in the center, which makes it much easier to break the toffee apart after it cools and hardens. It is simple and quick for a sweet treat!
Ingredients In Homemade English Toffee Recipe
These simple ingredients are perfect for this English toffee recipe! Create the best candy and treat that everyone loves. It is layered with sweet chocolate and a homemade toffee, with a crunchy texture from nuts all broken apart for easy snacking. It is the perfect combination!
- Butter – Make it rich and creamy with all the buttery flavor. You can use either salted butter or unsalted butter depending on preference! Just don’t use margarine to replace the butter. The margarine will have too much water that will prevent the toffee from hardening.
- White Sugar – The granulated sugar will melt down and create a caramelized coloring and sweet flavor mixed together. Don’t use brown sugar, it doesn’t do as well with the hard crack stage.
- Vanilla – Just a splash adds a delicious vanilla flavor.
- Salt – A pinch of salt gives this English toffee a sweet and salty flavor.
- Nuts – Almonds, walnuts, or peanuts work great. Purchase them chopped ahead of time or hand chop them at home.
- Chocolate chips – The layer of chocolate can be either milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or semisweet chocolate chips work well too. We used semi-sweet chocolate chips for this recipe.
How to Make Homemade English Toffee
Let’s get ready to make the best homemade English toffee recipe! Quick and easy to make with just a few pans to dirty! Combine the ingredients and melt them together. This toffee mixture is amazingly delicious! Layer the nuts, toffee, and chocolate on a prepared cookie sheet. This combination is perfect for a quick treat everyone loves!
- Combine – Combine butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until butter and sugar are dissolved together, then bring to a rolling boil.
- Stir – Cook and stir until the mixture turns a caramel brown and reaches the crack stage. Use a candy thermometer and it was around 310 degrees.
- Cover – Pour toffee over a handful of your favorite nuts on a cookie sheet lined with cooking spray.
- Add chocolate – While the toffee is still hot, gently sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. When the chocolate chips begin to melt, smooth them out over the toffee.
- Cool and break apart – Cool completely before breaking into bite-size pieces.
Tips for Making the Best English Toffee
Make the best English toffee with these super quick and easy tips! These tips are full of appearance, getting started, taking your almonds to the next level, and using a candy thermometer. All these tips are great to know and try when making this English toffee recipe!
- Smooth chocolate – To ensure smooth chocolate on top, use an offset spatula or a butter knife to make it silky smooth on top.
- Prepare a pan – Prepare your cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper on the bottom of it before adding the layers of nuts, toffee, and chocolate.
- Toasted nuts – Bake the nuts in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes to give them a crunchy and toasted flavor.
- Candy thermometer – It is best to use a candy thermometer to make sure that the temperature heats appropriately.
Candy Holiday Gifts
English Toffee serves as a great staple in any holiday candy gift basket or goodie plate. We love serving it for the holidays along with our Christmas Charcuterie, Chocolate Orange Cookies, and Christmas Apples. If you want to add even more diversity to the Christmas candy creations, you can try some of these other great recipes too!
Rave Reviews
“WOW! JUST made this cause family was craving something sweet and salty. Followed recipe exactly and I dont even have a candy thermometer and it came out amazing!! I want to eat it all. Lol”
-Shelli
“The only problem with this dessert is having to share it with the family! Wow!”
-Brook
The only problem with this dessert is having to share it with the family! Wow!
Frequently Asked Questions
Our recipe uses almonds, but you can choose whichever you like, whether that be chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds, or peanuts. You can choose what is best for your family and friends!
Keep the toffee mixture around a medium-high temperature and stir with a wooden spoon until it hits the hard-crack stage. This is around 310 degrees. You will then be able to pour it on the prepared baking sheet and let it cool at room temperature.
In the US, “English toffee” is a toffee made with nuts and chocolate, but traditionally in England, “English toffee” is a toffee that is made without nuts.
Storing Easy English Toffee
English toffee is simple to store and even share as a gift. Store it in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge for one month. This English toffee is perfect for gift-giving and sharing with friends and family!
Read Next: Christmas Cookie Recipes
More Christmas Treat Recipes
There is something so delightful about the holiday tradition of exchanging gifts with friends and neighbors. Try these Christmas treats to share with those you love and have close to you. They are perfect for parties or gift-giving!
- Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods
- See’s Fudge Recipe
- Homemade Almond Joys
- Homemade Caramels
- Peppermint Bark
- Chocolate Covered Cherries
- Crockpot Peanut Clusters
- Cinnamon Almonds
- Snowball Cookies
How to Make English Toffee
English Toffee Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup almonds or peanuts chopped (optional)
- 3/4 cup chocolate chips (we like milk chocolate chips)
Instructions
- Combine butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until butter and sugar are dissolved together, then bring to a rolling boil.
- Cook and stir until the mixture turns a caramel brown and reaches the crack stage (we used a candy thermometer and it was around 310 degrees).
- Pour toffee over a handful of your favorite nuts on a cookie sheet lined with cooking spray.
- While the toffee is still hot, gently sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top.
- When the chocolate chips begin to melt, smooth them out over the toffee.
- Cool completely before breaking into pieces.
Notes
Recipe Tips:
We received this recipe suggestion in our comments. Thank you, Bonnie!- “I learned to make a very similar toffee at a professional candy-making class. Find liquid lecithin and add about one teaspoon after all ingredients come to a boil. Lecithin is an emulsifier and will make a difference. If butter separates, you’re probably cooking on too high heat……vigorously stir in the ‘white ‘ foamy part and all should be well.
- The recipe is easier if you use a couple of wooden spoons…..change spoons/take a wet paper towel around the top of the toffee to rid of any stray sugar crystals.
- Candy will take longer if you make it on a rainy day ~ I put coarse salt lightly on top.
WOW! JUST made this cause family was craving something sweet and salty. Followed recipe exactly and I dont even have a candy thermometer and it came out amazing!! I want to eat it all. Lol
How much is a portion. Asking for a diabetic guest that will allow a treat during the holidays.
When we make this, each batch is broken into 12-15 pieces, so it’s hard to be exact. The recipe nutritional information is for 1/12 of a batch. If you can try to break the toffee as evenly as you can into 12 pieces, the nutritional information should be pretty accurate for your diabetic guest. Thank you for asking!
I learned to make a very similar toffee at a professional candy making class. Find liquid lecithin and add about one teaspoon after all ingredients come to a boil. Lecithin is an emulsifier and will make a difference. If butter separates, you’re probably cooking on too high heat……vigorously stir in ‘white ‘ foamy part and all should be well.
Recipe is easier if you use a couple of wooden spoons…..change spoons/take wet paper towel around top of toffee to rid of any stray sugar crystals.
Candy will take longer if you make it on a rainy day ~ I put coarse salt lightly on top ~
This is an easy recipe…..just don’t rush it …..
Thank you so much for all of these great tips! I am going to add your comment to our recipe notes.
I boiled my toffee for a good 20 min but its soft. It did not crack. Tastes great but i have had to pull it apart. What did I do wrong
Were you using a candy thermometer to check the temperature?
This is delicious! I didn’t have a candy thermometer, so I guess I got lucky with a lazer thermometer. It turned out perfectly, I used salted, roasted pistachios in the recipe this time. Next time I’m going to skip the chocolate and used salted, roasted peanuts instead.
Thank you,
How come your recipe doesn’t mention when to add in the salt nor the vanilla?
Thanks for bringing that to our attention! I have edited the recipe to reflect the correct instructions.
This is such a delicious recipe! Can’t wait to try it!
5 stars!! Delicious!
The only problem with this dessert is having to share it with the family! Wow!
Use C and H. sugar not Good Value, Walmart brand name.
I am an old timer in making old english toffee, Quite a number of years ago, I had problems with the butter separating while cooking. Believing it was butter, I tried, expensive, cheap, salted or unsalted it made no difference, Early this year I heard a lady remark she had problems making pudding and now had problems, I doing her research found she was using Good Value Sugar Walmart brand and reverted back to C and H sugar and could make the pudding again. I needed to wait until colder weather and successfully have made Old English Toffee by using C and H sugar this year in 2019!
I notice a difference in some recipes when using beet sugar. It tastes the same as sugar cane, but it doesn’t cook the same. Check the label for pure cane sugar.
In the instructions, point 5, you say “spread over the toffee” There is no toffee in the recipe.
I would say roughly 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. Hope this helps! I will fix it so it is in the ingredient list.. thanks for the catch!
Hello.
Do you use unsalted butter or salted?
Can’t wait to make it! ????
I like to use salted 🙂 but others may say unsalted is better. Totally up to you.
Help! I just made this, and a few minutes after coming to a rolling boil the butter separated and never mixed back in. Do you know what I did wrong that caused this? I followed the instructions to a “T”. Thanks for any help.
You may have heated it too quickly. I’m not exactly use what could have gone wrong. Did any water get into the mixture? Even condensation building up above your cooking area and dripping into it can cause the butter to separate. Sorry Im not much help with this! Let me know if it happens again and we can re-visit the recipe. Sorry this happened to you!
Looking forward to trying this
Do you use white sugar.
Yes, it is white sugar. It ends up looking brown because it caramelizes as it boils.
Do you think panela would work instead of white sugar?
I haven’t tried any variations of this recipe, so I can’t speak for how it would affect the taste or texture.
WHAT SIZE COOKIE SHEET PAN DID YOU USE ?
Just the standard size, the metal kind with the rim around the edges.
Echo gave my family some for Christmas and everyone wanted the recipe! So yummy!
Do you used salted nuts, unsalted, raw, or roasted nuts?
I use salted nuts usually!
I absolutely love your blog and always LOOK FORWARD to trying your recipes. 🙂 Mahalo!
I made this today with almonds instead of peanuts. It was AMAZING! I need to get it out of my house pronto before I eat the ENTIRE pan!