English Toffee -
A Sweet Holiday Tradition

It's the holidays and I'm making English toffee - a tradition in my family since I was a child. Making English toffee is an endeavor with results that seem really extravagant, but the actual process is quite simple. So here, for your holiday pleasure, is my family recipe for English toffee.  It’s a wonderful treat for yourself, and an impressive gift for family, friends, colleagues and clients. Happy holidays!

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English Toffee

Makes 4 lbs. of toffee - 1 large baking sheet or four 6" x 8" foil pans.

Ingredients

1 pound salted butter (if you use unsalted, add 1 tsp. salt)
3 cups white sugar (1lb., 6 oz.)
2/3 cup water
1 lb. good quality chocolate — milk or dark as you prefer. (See notes below)
12 oz. nuts, coarsely chopped. Walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts. 
2 tsp coarse sea salt or kosher salt, optional

Notes about chocolate
Chocolate chips are better than bar or pure chocolate, because they are formulated to stick better. A baking supply shop is a good source because you can buy higher quality at larger bulk for lower prices. 

Notes about nuts
Use walnuts and pecans raw, but I prefer other nuts roasted. Roasted and salted is even better if you like the combination of salty and sweet. Don't use peanuts.

Tools

A large saucepan with a heavy bottom, at least 4 quart capacity
This should NOT be a non-stick pan, because non-stick pans allow crystals to be pulled into the cooking toffee and will cause the batch to crystallize. The heavy pan distributes heavy evenly so the toffee cooks without burning.

A stirring paddle -- wooden is best
Here's my favorite toffee-stirring tool. Its flat bottom scrapes the bottom and sharp corners wedge into the corners of the pan. The long handle keeps my hand back away from the hot toffee.  Don’t use a metal spoon — it conducts heat.  And don’t use a plastic spoon — it will melt.

Pastry brush and cup of water
You'll use these to rinse sugar crystals from the side of the pan as you cook. This is important, as it keeps the toffee from crystallizing.

Cookie Sheet or Small Foil Tins
This recipe makes a large cookie sheet or four 6" x 8" foil tins. I really like the tins for gift-giving. They fit perfectly sideways into a U.S. Postal Service padded flat-rate envelope for mailing. Click here for the ones I buy on Amazon.

Clear plastic gift-giving bags
If you're using the foil tins for individual gifts, packaging them in clear plastic bags makes them look appealing and professional. Here are the ones I bought on Amazon. 

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 Instructions

Pay close attention to the cooking technique — it’s not difficult, but there are reasons for doing what you do.

Choose a clear day when the humidity is low.  Do not try to make candy on a rainy day.  If there is too much humidity in the atmosphere the toffee will not harden, and instead will turn to sugar crystals.

Prepare a baking sheet and the nuts in advance.  Use a metal cookie sheet (it must have 4 sides, not a pan with one edge flat) or 4 foil mini-broiler pans.  (These 6″ x 8″ pans are the most practical if you are making gifts, because you can gift the English toffee right in the pan.)  Spread the nuts over the bottom of the cookie sheet or foil pans.

Before starting to cook the toffee, fill the cup with water, place the brush next to it, and set it next to the stove where you are going to cook.

The simple explanation of how to cook the toffee is this: Put the sugar (and salt), water and butter in the pan.  Using medium-to-high heat, melt and stir the ingredients until the sugar caramelizes.  This is what is going to happen and what to watch for: 

The butter will melt and the sugar will dissolve.  As soon as the butter has completely melted, the mixture will bubble up to about double the size it began.  It will stay at this height throughout the entire cooking process.

You must stir constantly, and stirring technique is actually important to the outcome of the toffee, so pay attention:  When you stir, scrape the bottom of the pan.** Make small circles from the edge of the pan through the center, like drawing petals on a flower.  This mixes the hotter liquid from the outside into the cooler liquid in the center and keeps the liquid an even temperature so the toffee cooks evenly.  Stir steadily at a medium speed, keeping the surface of the candy at the same level — don’t make “waves” of liquid against the side of the pan, and don’t scrape the sides of the pan.  Why?  Because the thin layer of sugar that will get left on the side of the pan is where sugar crystals can form, and if they do, they will make the entire batch of toffee turn to sugar crystals, rather than hard candy.  If this thin film of sugar does happen to form or when splashes drops of sugar onto the rim of the pan, use the pastry brush dipped in water to wash the sugar down from the side of the pan, dissolving any sugar crystals that may have formed. 

After about 15 minutes, you will notice that the candy starts to pull away from the side of the pan as you stir.  It will also begin to turn golden.  Keep stirring.  As it starts to darken, drop a bit of candy off the spoon into the ice water in the small bowl.  The first test will probably be partly soft, with a hard shell.  That’s called “soft crack” stage, and the toffee isn’t ready yet.  Keep stirring and cooking until the liquid is the color of, well, toffee (a rich golden brown).  When that happens, the drop of candy that you drop in the water will immediately become hard.  This is called “hard crack” stage and this means the toffee is done.*

You will know the toffee is ready when it turns a rich toffee color and suddenly you get a strong whiff of toffee scent. Remove the pan of toffee from the stove and immediately pour it over the nuts in the prepared pans. 

If you were very careful about washing crystals from the side of the pan, you should be able to scrape the sides of the cooking pan into the pans of toffee. If you have doubts about crystallization, don't scrape the cooking pan into the cooking sheets, because crystallizaton will spread through the whole batch of toffee. Scrape the pan into a separate dish (use a flexible metal one, like another cookie sheet or foil pan so the toffee is easy to remove).  This “tail end” of the batch may or may not crystallize, but you don’t want to run the risk that if it does it will crystallize the whole batch.  I like to save this leftover to break up and put in my gourmet chocolate chip cookies.

Let the toffee cool about 5 minutes until a film forms over the top but the toffee is still warm to the touch. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the toffee. Wait a few minutes to allow them to melt (they will become shiny), then use the back of a spoon to spread the chocolate around. If the toffee gets too cool and the chocolate doesn't melt, put the pan of toffee into a warm oven for a few moments to melt the chocolate.

Sprinkle the remaining nuts on top. If you wish, sprinkle a small amount of sea salt over the surface of the chocolate as well.  (Don’t do this if you used salted nuts – they have enough salt already.)

Cool the toffee completely before putting into bags or an airtight container. Break into chunks to serve. Store away from humidity. Can be frozen.

Just a note of caution about candy making: Sugar syrup is extremely hot and does not cool quickly.  If you spill on flesh it will burn long and deep.  Do not make candy with young children around, and take care not to spill on yourself when handling hot sugar syrup.  If you do, immediately plunge the syrup-covered area into ice water to cool the syrup and stop the burning.

* Funny story: In my apartment the smoke detectors are extremely sensitive.  As it turns out, every time I make toffee, they start wailing right at the moment when the toffee is ready to remove from the stove.  I don’t even have to drop-test the syrup any more!