Melt in Your Mouth Homemade Toffee — 😋💚❤️ Irresistible, buttery, ADDICTIVE, and just melts in your mouth!! EASY and perfect for holiday parties, gift-giving, or cookie exchanges!!
Table of Contents
Easy Homemade Toffee Recipe
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love toffee, and this hard toffee is irresistible, addictive, and it melts in your mouth, hence the recipe title.
The homemade toffee is easy but with any kind of candy-making, being precise while you’re making it is essential to a successful result.
It’s perfect for the holiday season to give at cookie exchanges, as a hostess gift, or to set it out at parties you’re hosting. People won’t be able to keep their hands off of it.
It’s a gentle adaptation of an Allrecipes recipe and made with just a handful of ingredients that I got delivered directly to my door courtesy of AmazonFresh.
Ingredients in Toffee
Ever wondered what’s in toffee? For this easy toffee recipe, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Kosher salt
- Vanilla extract
- Chocolate chips
- Chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
- Sea salt (optional)
- Holiday sprinkles (optional)
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Toffee From Scratch
I’ve given very detailed instructions on how to make homemade toffee in the recipe card below. Here’s an overview of the process:
- Add the butter, sugars, and salt to a saucepan and heat over medium-low heat.
- Boil the mixture until the ‘hard crack’ stage (290-300F), then stir in the vanilla extract.
- Pour mixture into a parchment paper-lined 9×13-inch baking dish.
- Sprinkle with chocolate chips, then spread them smooth once melted.
- Optionally sprinkle with chopped nuts, sea salt, sprinkles, etc. Let cool until set, then break!
Tip
After the butter, sugars, and salt have come to a boil, DON’T STIR. I know it’s tempting but displaced sugar molecules due to stirring can stick to the sides of the pan and cause graininess or crystallization in the finished toffee.
Recipe Variations to Try
One reason why this truly is the BEST toffee recipe is because you can use it to make lots of different toffee flavors.
I made four different versions of homemade toffee from one batch:
- Pecans and flaked sea salt
- Flaked sea salt
- Holiday sprinkles
- Plain
For parties it’s nice to be able to give the “I don’t like nuts” people something without nuts, the “I love salt with my chocolate” people (me!) some sea salt, and holiday sprinkles are a universal day-brightener.
Recipe FAQs
I prefer semi-sweet chocolate rather to milk chocolate, but use your favorite. If your chocolate chips are resistant to melting — which can happen with some brands because of the stabilizers in them (or if you wait too long before adding them to the toffee) — place the baking sheet in a 300F oven for a couple of minutes until the chocolate chips can be spread smooth.
At 290F, the homemade toffee is not as hard as it is at 300F when you’re officially in the ‘hard crack’ range of candy making. I prefer it more towards the 290F range but if you like some snappier toffee, then go to 300F.
Yes, you will need a candy thermometer. I prefer a clip-on digital style available on Amazon, but any kind will do. I have other toffee recipes that don’t require a thermometer and if you’re looking for one of those — try this one or this one.
Some people have asked about the chocolate lifting off the top after they cut or break the toffee. From time to time, this does happen to me as well. If I don’t add too thick of a layer of chocolate, that seems to help it keep better adhered but sometimes, for whatever reason, it does seem to separate in some pieces, which I don’t worry too much about.
No! Store the homemade hard toffee at cool room temperature. It will last for weeks!
Yes, but it’s best frozen plain (i.e. just the toffee and chocolate) without any toppings. Wrap the toffee tightly in plastic wrap before sealing in a zip-top bag. Definitely eat it within 6 months!
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Melt In Your Mouth Toffee
Ingredients
- 1 pound unsalted butter, 4 sticks
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
- 1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups chocolate chips, I used semi-sweet, use milk chocolate if preferred
- ½ to 1 + cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional and to taste
- sea salt flakes, optional for sprinkling
- holiday sprinkles, optional
Instructions
- Line a 9×13-inch pan with parchment paper; set aside.
- If you have a clip-on candy thermometer, attach it to a heavy, high-sided saucepan. (If your thermometer doesn’t clip, that’s okay.)
- Add the butter, sugars, salt, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils. After it boils, don’t stir.
- Boil mixture until the ‘hard crack’ stage, 290-300F, without stirring (stirring can cause the finished toffee to become grainy or crystallize). It will probably take 20-25-ish minutes to come up to temperature if you’re cooking over a true medium-low. At 290-300F, remove the pan from the heat.
- Cautiously stir in the vanilla (it will bubble up).
- Pour mixture into the prepared pan and let it sit for about 5 minutes before evenly sprinkling the chocolate chips over the toffee. Tip – Add one chip and if it sinks into the toffee, wait another few minutes before adding the chips.
- Cover the pan with foil for about 5 minutes, remove the foil, and spread the chocolate chips smooth with a spatula or off-set knife. Tip – If you chips have not melted (some brands are more resistant to others to melting and/or your toffee may have taken awhile to set up), put the pan in a 300F oven for a few minutes, or just until chips can be spread smooth.
- Optionally sprinkle with nuts, sea salt, sprinkles, etc., to taste. For this batch, I used pecans with sea salt, sea salt, holiday sprinkles, and plain.
- Let the toffee cool completely before in the fridge for about 30+ minutes, or until set. Break toffee apart with your hands or cut it with a sharp knife.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Christmas Candy Recipes:
Graham Cracker Toffee (aka Graham Cracker CRACK) — Sweet, buttery, caramely, perfectly chocolaty, topped with toffee bits for extra crunch! Lives up to its name and extremely addictive! An easy holiday and party favorite!
Churro Toffee — This Disneyland copycat recipe might be even more delicious than the real deal! Buttery, crunchy toffee is coated in sweet white chocolate that’s dusted with a scrumptious combination of cinnamon and sugar for an irresistible churro flavor sensation!
Chocolate-Covered Sponge Candy — A classic homemade Christmas candy that’s light and airy candy inside and chocolate-dipped on the outside. Easy to make!
Chocolate Saltine Toffee (aka Christmas Crack) – This stuff lives up to its name and is extremely addictive! Salty, sweet, crunchy, chewy and a holiday favorite everyone loves! Easy recipe!
The Easiest Foolproof Fudge Recipe — Look no further than this recipe for the EASIEST and most FOOLPROOF fudge that takes less than 3 minutes to make!!
Chocolate Stained Glass Candy — Likely the prettiest Christmas candy you’ll make all holiday season! It’s FAST, EASY, and NO-BAKE! Milk chocolate takes on the appearance of stained glass by adding colored mini marshmallows, crispy Rice Krispies, and chewy dried cherries.
Loaded Christmas Bark — This EASY, no-bake chocolate bark is LOADED with goodies!! Oreos, M&M’s, peanuts, pretzels, and sprinkles!
Post is brought to you by AmazonFresh. The recipe, text, images, and opinions expressed are my own. @Amazonfresh @Allrecipes #AmazonFresh
Originally posted December 13, 2017 and reposted December 11, 2020 with updated text.
I followed the recipe, double checking every extensively, made sure I used light brown sugar and it still burnt.
Did you use a thermometer? I don’t know how it could have burned if you brought it to 290F or 300F max. I have very few recipes on my site that call for a thermometer but this is one, you have to use one, and if you do, it’s theoretically not possible to burn it if you bring it to the indicated temp. I would like to know what happened so more details about what you did would be helpful.
Hi there this recipe sounds amazing but all the measurements are in US measurements, could you please add a toggle or somethng and show the metric grams/millilitres please? Also it is very annoying that the post is full of pictures and distracting stuff makes it very hard to find the recipe etc. Thank you
I am American, I use cups and teaspoons, it’s how I grew up and therefore my recipes are written as such. There are lots of sites out there to convert recipes online. Pick your favorite and go for it.
Also,”the post is full of pictures and distracting stuff”. Food blogs have photos of food, including process shots, or other photos relevant to the recipe. If you would like an ad-free experience, check this out https://www.averiecooks.com/plans/ad-free-membership/
I tried making this toffee but it burnt even on low-medium. It took at least 20-25 minutes to reach temp with my clip on thermometer, I didn’t stir, I followed all of the directions except… I only had dark brown sugar, though… maybe that was my error? 😩 I might have to try again with light brown sugar!!! 😃
Yes the dark brown sugar was your issue is my guess. Reason being dark brown sugar has a higher molasses ratio, and molasses is prone to burning. So I am guessing, although I haven’t tried, that if one does make toffee with dark brown sugar, you may not need to boil it as long because if you do, it may burn..then again, if you don’t boil it to a certain stage, it may not set up either.
Bottom line, use light brown, and triple check your thermometer. Make sure water is boiling at exactly 212F with it.