Get ready for fall baking and make these easy homemade toffee bits! They are perfect for adding to cookies or just eat this delicious, four ingredient candy by itself!
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With fall being right around the corner, I have been getting the urge to make more “fall like” foods. By “fall like” I am thinking foods that are a little heartier, like soups and oatmeal cookies. Ha what a not-so-subtle segue. (Also, I don’t like how the word segue doesn’t sound like it’s spelled. But that’s neither here nor there.)
Toffee. Toffee is definitely a fall flavor. And it rhymes with coffee. Therefore I love it.
I have never made toffee from scratch before, but I wanted some for this Toffee Chocolate Oatmeal Cookie recipe that I created. My local supermarché had Heath bar bits, but not toffee bits that weren’t coated in chocolate. And I wanted the chocolate separate so I could taste it. I guess I could have gone to another grocery store, but I’m lazy and it’s still too hot for me to enjoy driving around.
The only hard part of making toffee is hanging out in front of the stove to insure that it doesn’t burn. You have to be careful not to stir it too much because it will cause the butter and sugar to separate and the sugar to crystallize. It took about 20 minutes to make. And the flavor! Yep, it’s totally worth making your own toffee bits!
Ideally, you will need a candy thermometer, a heavy saucepan, a whisk, a baking sheet, and parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
Easy Homemade Toffee Bits
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter cubed, unsalted*
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt*
- *if using salted butter, omit the kosher salt
Instructions
Cut butter into cubes and place in heavy saucepan with sugar. Heat on low to medium low setting, whisking rarely while the sugar and butter melt.
As the toffee cooks it will start to look clumpy, whisk or use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom of the pan while it is cooking to prevent any burning.
As the color of the toffee starts to darken, stir in the vanilla and the salt. Continue to cook and until the temperature on the candy thermometer reaches 295F to 305F and the toffee is approximately the color of peanut butter.
Carefully pour the hot toffee onto a parchment or silicone baking mat lined baking sheet. The toffee will cool and harden within 10 - 20 minutes.
Crack it with a spoon or pestle.
Store in airtight container for up to one week.
Notes
If you are having trouble with the butter and sugar separating, read this article...
https://www.thespruceeats.com/why-did-my-butter-separate-when-making-toffee-or-caramel-520448
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I love the idea of making my own toffee bits. Thank you for sharing this recipe at Happiness is Homemade.
Yum! What a fun thing to make!
You made it look so easy! I’m a little bit behind but I wanted to make sure to check out your post – and thank you for joining the What’s for dinner party. Have a wonderful weekend and hope to see you at tomorrow’s party too!
Toffee is my favorite! I already pinned this recipe so I can make it for the holidays!
Love this to bits! 🙂 It is such a great idea to make home-made toffee! I’m surely going to try this out – however I’m afraid of getting either rock-hard toffee or one that sticks to my teeth. Yours looks just perfect. 🙂
Yum, I love toffee. Thanks for sharing at the To Grandma’s House We Go DIY, Crafts, Recipes and More Link party! Pinned this! Hope to see you again next week. Have a great day!
Can’t wait to try this! Thanks for sharing with SYC.
hugs,
Jann
I love homemade toffee, it’s the best in homemade ice cream and fudge! Looks fantastic (and your photos are gorgeous btw)! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
These look delicious, I could go for some right now! Definitely gonna need to try this recipe! Thanks for joining us at last week’s Reader Tip Tuesday! This week’s party is up and live all week long. We hope to see you there…
Do you think this would be fine in the freezer? I wanted to make some extra so I could toss it into cookies later!
Maybe…as long as it was in an air-tight container. Let me know how it goes.
Help, please. I made this toffee just as described and double-checked the ingredients. The toffee tastes delicious but it is 1) quite hard (the temp did not go higher than 305F degrees.) and more importantly, the butter never incorporated. When I poured it onto the silpat, liquid butter spread everywhere. So the toffee, even after I beak it up will be oily. I know that is not correct but have no idea what I did to cause this. Also, you say keep whisking but most recipes say swirl the pan but do not ever stir after the initial ingredients are in the pan. Thank you!
Hi Sharon- I’m sorry you are having trouble. I did have that happen once, and although I can’t prove it, I thought it had something to do with the amount of fat versus water content in the butter I used. But I haven’t had it happen again, so I really can’t be sure.
I do whisk frequently while it’s on the stove because I have had the sugar burn and it ruined the pan.
I had the same issue as Sharon. I used Land o Lakes unsalted butter thst is supposedly ideal for baking. I drained off the butter that did not incorporate and poured out on a pan but it was still real oily. Mine was a bit gritty as if the sugar did dissolve but I did get it up to 305 degrees. I used it anyway for a cookie recipe and it worked out fine.
I too had the same issue as Sharon and Cheryl. The butter never incorporated so I was using paper towels to soak up pools of butter off of the hardened toffee. Pretty much every caramel or toffee recipe I’ve looked at says never to stir and only swirl the pan occasionally as stirring can cause the sugar to crystallize and become grainy, which is exactly what happened. But it still tastes really good and will be just fine when I break it up and bake it into peanut butter cookies.
Oh gosh! I’m so sorry that happened. I was just reading an article about toffee and you are right. I will update the recipe.
Hi- Ok I am not trying to be a jerk, but did you actually make toffee successfully using this recipe? I tried twice and ended up with a burnt mess both times. I switched over to youtube and found a video with instructions which are the complete opposite every step of the way. ie. melt the butter first, add the salt and vanilla, slowly add the sugar, stir constantly until it changes color. And it came out perfect. Is there a reason you make it this way? I am genuinely curious since its my first time making it and this is so drastically different. By the time my candy thermometer hit 270 I knew it was destined to fail lol
Hi Lindsay- You’re not being a jerk and I appreciate your feedback. So I make this recipe about 5 times a year for the past six or seven years, usually in the fall and winter for holiday cookies. There was one time that it didn’t turn out right because the butter didn’t incorporate, but I blame that on the butter that I used. I do stir mine constantly so that it doesn’t burn. I received comments from people telling me their butter did not incorporate with the sugar because another recipe told them they were stirring too much. Apparently toffee is a fickle thing. I wish I had the answers for you because this recipe works for me.