The Toffee Trilogy – Part One – The Toffee, Pastry Maestra (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between toffee and butter toffee? ›

Primarily, the difference rests in the ingredients. Toffee in Britain is made with brown sugar, whereas buttercrunch is made with white granulated sugar. The differences do not stop there, however, since the delectable buttercrunch is usually made with a nice variety of nuts and other flavorings.

Most people agree that toffee is cooked to soft crack stage, which is at temperature of 135°C – 140°C (275°F – 284°F), or hard crack stage which occurs at temperature of 145°C – 155°C (293°F – 311°F). More precisely, this candy is usually cooked at temperatures from 140°C – 150°C (284°F – 302°F).

Next is soft-crack stage, this happens between 270-290oF, sugar concentration is 95%, and forms solid, flexible threads. Hard-crack stage occurs between 300-310oF, sugar concentration is around 99%, and makes hard, brittle threads when dropped in water.

Toffee is butterscotch that has been cooked for a longer period of time. Toffee begins as a base of butter and brown sugar that is gradually cooked to the hard-crack sugar stage between 295 and 309 degrees Fahrenheit.

What's the difference between English and American toffee? The main difference is that traditional English toffee is created without nuts, while American toffee is created with a variety of nuts. The most common nuts being the almond.

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. Think you can save time by bringing the syrup to a full rolling, popping boil in order for it to darken more quickly? Think again.

It's important while the toffee cooks to only stir it occasionally. Constant stirring can cause the toffee to crystallize and separate. For those of you that need to know exactly how often you should stir, I would suggest erring on the side of not stirring more than stirring.

Chocolate chips have a non-melting coating to help them keep their shape. But when they melt, the coating can prevent the chocolate from sticking to the toffee. Sometimes the chocolate melts at a temperature that makes it shrink when it hardens, pulling it away from the toffee layer.

Cook the candy – Once boiling, attach a candy thermometer (don't let it touch the bottom!) and keep stirring as the mixture turns golden. Remove from heat and add vanilla once the toffee reaches 305F.

Usually, the caramelization process starts at around 320°F, when the sugar starts melting and becomes clear molten sugar. By the time the temperature reaches 340 – 350°F, the color will also begin to change to a pale caramel brown or light straw color.

How long does it take to get sugar to hard-crack stage? ›

Continue boiling, uncovered, not stirring the mixture but shaking the saucepan occasionally to distribute the heat as the mixture turns amber in about 9 minutes, then darker amber as it registers 305 degrees on the thermometer (hard-crack stage ), about 3 minutes longer.

If the heat is too high, but butter might melt too quickly and can separate from the sugar.

The ingredients that make up butter toffee include unsalted butter, granulated sugar, light corn syrup, water, vanilla, almonds, and dark chocolate. You can choose a different type of chocolate, but when I was working on this recipe, I found semi-sweet chocolate too sweet.

Butter crunch is typically toffee that's got crushed nuts on its chocolate coating. Our version turns that idea on its head. Instead of packing chocolate with crushed nuts, we let the nuts cook into our buttery-sweet toffee recipe until they're nice and toasty, bringing their mojo and nuance into the candy blend.

When it comes to butterscotch and toffee you've got a lot of the same ingredients. They also use butter, vanilla, and heavy whipping cream, but it's the sugar that differentiates these two from caramel. While caramel uses white sugar, both butterscotch and toffee use brown sugar.