Children's Toffees (2024)

FAQs

What are toffees made of? ›

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.

Made with just sugar and a little water, toffee is easy to make and is an easy introduction to the world of confectionary. This recipe includes a dash of vinegar which will help keep the colour of the toffee clear and bright and banish any cloudiness.

How to Store Toffee. Store homemade toffee in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week or in the fridge for up to two weeks.

The food writer Harold McGee points to the native Creole language wherein toffee indicates a mixture of molasses and sugar. A third theory says that toffee's earlier spelling, “toughy” or “tuffy”, was actually meant to refer to it's chewy toughness. The term is said to have come from a southern British dialect.

In the United States, Toffifee is marketed with an alternative spelling of "Toffifay" and a white package design. Elsewhere in the world, including in Canada and Europe, the brand retains its original spelling and brown box design.

Historically, taffy has been considered an American term while toffee is the term used by the British. Those studying the history of the two believe that both gained popularity during the 19^th century.

The difference between caramel and toffee is greater, as caramel has a more liquid consistency and is usually pure sugar (it doesn't contain butter or flour). Still, the taste of caramel, fudge, and toffee is relatively similar, as they are all made from mostly sugar (as well as butter in the case of fudge and toffee).

Low and slow

Simmering the syrup for English toffee to the requisite 300°F temperature can (and should) be a slow process — up to 20 minutes or so. 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.

English toffee and American toffee diverged with the preferred use of sugar type. English toffee is made with brown sugar, while American-style toffee, known as buttercrunch is made with white table sugar (granulated sugar). Buttercrunch is typically dusted with crushed almonds or other nuts.

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.

Can toffee go bad? ›

For maximum taste and texture, we do recommend that you either enjoy your toffee immediately, or store it in a refrigerator or freezer. Once opened, unrefrigerated product will retain maximum freshness for about a week. Refrigeration adds 3-6 months of shelf life, while freezing adds up to a year or more.

Make sure that the point of the candy thermometer is not touching the bottom of your pan. Continue to stir occasionally, the mixture will slowly thicken and will turn a more yellow hue as it cooks, and cook to hard crack (305°F/151°C).

Our English Toffee is World Famous for good reason - cooked to perfection so it melts in your mouth and covered with the finest milk chocolate and fresh roasted almonds.

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.

Toffee vs Butterscotch

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.

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.

Toffee – the hard, sweet candy – is an old-fashioned treat, so you might not hear the name very much around modern candy shops. But this classic candy is an enjoyable delight that bursts with flavor at each bite. What is toffee, you ask? Basically, it's hardened caramel (more on that later).

Candy can refer to any confection that is made mainly of sugar. Toffee is a type of hard candy that softens when sucked or chewed. Therefore, toffee is a type of a candy. This is the key difference between candy and toffee.

Toffee is just sugar, butter, water, and vanilla cooked to a hard crack stage and caramel has added heavy whipping cream and cooked to a firm ball stage. While I like toffee, I think that if it's not done right it takes on a burned sugar flavor and I really prefer a richer flavor of caramel!