English Toffee Candy FAQs (2024)

FAQs

Does English toffee need to 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. 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.

If the toffee or caramel is not handled properly during the cooking process, the butter sometimes separates from the sugar and forms an oily layer on top of the candy. This often happens during the cooking stage, but sometimes it separates as it is being poured out onto a baking sheet to cool.

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.

English toffee is a sweet candy that people make from sugar, butter, and almonds. It has a crunchy texture and a buttery, nutty flavor. English toffee is also known as butter crunch or almond crunch. It originated in England in the late 1800s.

Place toffee in the refrigerator until set, about 1 hour. Lift hardened toffee out of the baking dish with the parchment paper. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

Toffee is a hard candy made by cooking a sugar syrup with butter to the hard crack stage, 300–310°F (149–154°C), and then pouring it out to cool. It can have inclusions or not, and it can be made either very dense and hard or can be lightened by adding baking soda when the candy is almost done cooking .

It's important while the toffee cooks to only stir it occasionally. Constant stirring can cause the toffee to crystallize and separate.

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.

Test toffee is ready by placing a teaspoon of hot toffee into a glass of cold water, if toffee cracks its ready. Fresh water is needed for every test. When ready, toffee will be golden brown in colour. Allow bubbles to subside.

Although named English toffee, it bears little resemblance to the wide range of confectionery known as toffee currently available in the United Kingdom. However, one can still find this product in the UK under the name "butter crunch".

What pairs well with English toffee? ›

Brittles and toffees accumulate small amounts of acid from the browning reactions that occur during cooking. This is one reason why the baking soda is added at the end of cooking. The soda reacts with the acid to make bubbles, and the syrup foams.

Storing Toffee

A box of quality toffee can keep for two months under good conditions (airtight container, away from heat). But don't keep any fresh-made food product longer than this. If you can't enjoy within a few weeks, share the wealth and give it to someone who can!

The butter, sugar and syrup are melted together and should form a smooth sauce. When the sauce cools it should remain amalgamated. If the butterfat separates out then usually this is due to the mixture being either heated or cooled too quickly, which "shocks" the mixture and causes the fat to separate out.

Taffy is considered an earlier rendition of the word toffee, but the word taffy continued to be used in America while toffee was used in Great Britain.

The Almond Toffee is shipped frozen and travels very well even during the summertime when the candy will thaw during transit. We recommend refreezing or refrigerating the toffee upon receipt so the candy will return to proper consistency before serving.

Do the puddings need to be refrigerated? Yes!

Our almond toffee is best served cold and refrigeration is recommended in order to maintain the soft crunch. Short durations of up to 1 week at room temperature is safe. At proper storage temperature Brandini Toffee has a 1 year shelf life, naturally! Sweet-tip: Try serving our toffee popcorn cold.

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.