Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Sweet, nutty, and delicious.
Texture: Perfectly crunchy with a slight candy chew.
Ease: Just 3 ingredients and 15 minutes prep and cook time.
Pros: Such a fun DIY!
Cons: None.
Would I make this again? Absolutely, I like to make a double batch and sprinkle them on everything I bake for weeks.
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I adore toffee.
Like butterscotch, toffee seems to be caramel’s forgotten cousin. To me, it deserves as much adoration as caramel. Maybe more!
As much as I love a buttery toffee recipe on its own, my favorite is when it’s added to something already delicious.
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It’s the perfect addition to a chocolate chip cookie, blondie, brownie or even banana bread. Or sprinkle the toffee on cupcakes, French toast, or ice cream. Plus, you likely already have the simple ingredients on hand to make it from scratch.
Bonus: this toffee recipe is also a great treat for giving as delicious holiday gifts during the holidays or Christmas!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Homemade Toffee Bits
What is Toffee?
Toffee is a crunchy, sweet, buttery, cooked sugar candy, similar to caramel and butterscotch. These three classic dessert components seem very similar – so how do they differ?
- Caramel: Based on white granulated sugar. Typically, butter, milk/cream, and vanilla are added for flavor and to produce a thick, creamy caramel. Caramel can be heated less for a sauce consistency, longer for a chewy soft caramel, or even longer for a crunchier hard caramel. I have a recipe for caramel sauce here.
- Butterscotch: Similar process to caramel, but made with brown sugar instead of granulated white sugar. Cream and vanilla are also often added. I have a recipe for butterscotch sauce here.
- Toffee: Just like butterscotch, toffee starts with brown sugar – but the difference between butterscotch and toffee is the temperature it’s heated to. Toffee is cooked longer to a much higher temperature – all the way to the ‘hard crack’ stage. This means that toffee will harden completely as it cools, and can then be cut or broken into pieces, to be added to other delicious desserts, or simply enjoyed by itself!
What are Toffee Bits?
Just what it sounds like! Bits of crunchy sweet toffee, chopped or broken into pieces about the same size as chocolate chips.
Can’t You Just Buy Toffee Bits?
Yes, you can buy them in the baking aisle under the Heath brand. However, they can be difficult to find in some regions and stores. Additionally, many stores only carry chocolate-covered toffee bits, which you may not always want.
But trust me, this homemade toffee recipe is even tastier than the Heath version! Plus, no preservatives or artificial flavors in these homemade sweet morsels!
Only 3 Ingredients Are Needed for Homemade Toffee Bits:
- Butter (more on this below)
- Light brown sugar
- Salt
Why American-Style Butter?
European-style butter (such as Kerrygold) contains a higher butterfat percentage, compared to American-style butter. This lack of water content in European-style butter results in the toffee separating, and/or refusing to set fully. Any butter over 80% butterfat will cause these issues unless you add in 1-2 tablespoons of water to the melting butter.
How to Make DIY Toffee Bits From Scratch:
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Then, add the sugar and salt and whisk until combined. Continue whisking for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture looks like melted peanut butter (reference the picture below). Make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan or pot.
- Pour the toffee onto the prepared baking sheet pan, allowing it to spread. Let cool for about 20 minutes.
- Use a mallet, rolling pin, or heavy object to crack the batch of toffee into small bits.
- You can now use your toffee pieces to amp up the flavor in cookies, brownies, streusel toppings, sprinkled on top of vanilla ice cream, you name it!
Tips for Making Toffee:
- Before you start the recipe, line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. It’s best to do this first because you will need to pour the finished toffee onto the prepared pan immediately.
- If your toffee burns on the bottom or you’re having trouble with the toffee separating (and you’re using American-style butter!), try a thicker-based heavy saucepan. Pans with thinner bottoms will heat too aggressively and may cause separation or scorching.
- Never step away from the toffee while it’s on the stove. It can burn quickly.
- Do not try to touch or taste the sugar while it’s cooking, as it will be extremely hot.
- Separated toffee can sometimes be saved by removing the saucepan from the heat and whisking vigorously until it comes back together into a smooth mixture.
- A candy thermometer is so helpful in making toffee. This is my favorite candy thermometer.
- Make sure to let the toffee cool completely before you break it into bits and store it.
How to Store Toffee Bits
Once cooled and cut or broken into pieces, freeze in an airtight container or zip-top bag for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw at room temperature before enjoying or adding to cookie dough, streusel or other baked goods.
Recipes Using Toffee Bits:
Homemade Toffee Bits
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Ingredients
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted American butter*
- 1 cup (200 grams) light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Line a small rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In a heavy-bottomed small saucepan, begin melting the butter over medium heat. Add the sugar and salt to the partially melted butter and whisk vigorously for one minute until combined. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture looks like melted peanut butter and a candy thermometer reaches 295 to 305°F, about 10 minutes.
- If the mixture separates at all, remove from heat and whisk vigorously until recombined. Return to heat and continue cooking.
- Immediately and carefully pour the hot toffee onto the prepared baking pan, allowing it to spread into an even layer. Let cool and harden for about 20 minutes.
- Place the sheet of toffee on a cutting board or in a zip top bag. Use a mallet, rolling pin, or heavy object to crack it into small pieces. You can also cut into bits with a sharp serrated knife. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Recipe Notes
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Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
If making a double batch of the Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookie recipe do I need to make a double batch of the toffee too? Thank you.
Hi Geraldine! You’ll need 1 cup of homemade toffee bits for the Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookie recipe. One batch of these homemade toffee bits makes about 1 ½ cups. If you double the cookie recipe, I suggest doubling the homemade toffee bits recipe too. This way, you’ll have some extra toffee bits left over, which you can use for other baking experiments, or try out Tessa’s new Toffee Brownies recipe here! Hope this helps, and enjoy your cookies!
Thank you so much! And having extra toffee on hand is never a bad thing!
So tasty! I first attempted this recipe without a candy thermometer and that resulted in a burnt and bitter toffee. After buying a thermometer, I tried again, never stopped stirring, and it worked perfectly. Thankful for the easy to follow steps Tessa provides
I am about to move and I wanted to make some as a thank you to our housemate to allowed us to move in when we unexpectedly got kicked out of our last place (the company wasn’t paying the rent and we had no clue) so I was hoping to make something fun as a thank you…will a meat thermometer work? I have a thermapen that actually came with a temperature graph for things other than meat. Is that ok to use instead?
Hi Emily! What a great gift idea! Yes, using your Thermapen should work fine. Follow the temperature guidelines in the toffee recipe, and your Thermapen should provide accurate readings. Enjoy making your homemade toffee!
I have used this recipe and love it, but last time while trying to spread it became grainy in spots and looked like brown sugar.
Hi Debbie! I’m sorry to hear that your last batch of toffee didn’t turn out as it should! It’s hard to say for sure without having baked alongside you what may have happened here, but my initial thought is that your sugar may not have cooked down all the way, resulting in a grainy texture to your toffee. If you aren’t already using one, I also recommend using a candy thermometer to make sure your butter/sugar mixture reaches 295-305 degrees Fahrenheit. Hope this helps!
can I use regular brown sugar rather than light brown sugar?
Hi Laura! I’m not sure where you are located, but light brown sugar is the same thing as regular brown sugar in the US 🙂 The only other brown sugar distinction is dark brown sugar, which is darker in color than light/regular brown sugar thanks to its higher content of molasses. I hope that helps! Let us know what you think of these toffee bits once you have given them a try!
Turned out perfect the first time. I made the investment to get a candy thermometer to ensure success. Will be making brown butter toffee cookies with this toffee. Thanks for this super easy recipe!
I’m so frustrated I’ve tried this recipe 4 times and no matter what I do it separates
It always starts out great and then the mixture gets thick and separates. I’ve tried lowering the heat, using different types of butter. I don’t know what else to do at this point
Oh no. I’m sorry to hear you’ve experienced so many issues! Especially when butter is so expensive these days. It’s tough to say for sure what is going wrong without having made the toffee right alongside you, but I’ll help the best I can! Which brands/types of butter have you tried? Are they American-style, meaning ~80% butterfat content? Butter that contains a higher fat content than that can cause separation issues, such as Amish butter or European-style butter (like Kerrygold). You mentioned that the mixture starts out great but then separates. Are you continuously whisking the mixture as it cooks? I found during my testing of this recipe that if I stopped whisking for even 5-10 seconds, it caused the mixture to separate. I had to then vigorously stir the mixture until it came back together, which can take around 20 seconds! Let me know a bit more about your ingredients and process, and we’ll go from there. We’ll have you on your way to enjoying this toffee soon! 🙂
I’m English and to answer to your butter question, I asked my Gran because she always made toffee when we were kids and it was consistent. She said “you can use English butter (100% buttermilk) but you have to heat it up slowly and evenly. Heating to quickly ‘shocks’ the mixture and causes separation”
She comes from an age when people made bread/baked items fresh everyday
IT WORKED! I was very nervous, because not only did I only have salted butter (just figured i wouldn’t add the salt separately), but I’m pretty sure my stove’s “medium” was more like “medium high.” The sugar didn’t necessarily melt the way i was anticipating once i added it, and I’ll be honest, the mixture separated TWICE. The first time, I removed from heat and added some water (just took some lukewarm from my water glass). then, I think the temp was too high again, or I was mixing wrong – not sure – so I removed from heat, REALLY WHISKED IT for several minutes, and then put it over heat (lower this time) to re-melt everything. At this point, it had been over 20 minutes and I was getting very nervous as I saw the separated butter browning and did not want to burn it. It never reached the bubbling consistency in the pictures, nor the darkness, but once I saw it had recombined (my hand hurt a lot at this point) I figured I’d just pour it out and see what happens. And hey, I’ve got toffee! Even though it took me a bit longer due to my mistakes, it worked out and I’m very pleased with the results. Thanks for the recipe!
Way to persevere, your toffee looks great! Adding water to the mixture could very well have been the issue, but I’m so happy that it turned out for you 🙂
So. I tried this yesterday but didn’t pay close attention to the measurements and completely burned the first batch. Disaster. Tried it again today using American style butter with light brown sugar and a thin bottomed stainless saucepan since that’s what I have in my kitchen. Made the following adjustments since I don’t have a candy thermometer: set timer to 10 mins with heat closer to medium low. It still started separating about halfway through but since so many of you wonderful reviewers noted using hot water saved the day, once I saw the separation, I put a small bowl of water in the microwave to heat to boiling. I then turned off the heat and added 1/2 t of water at a time to get the consistency back. All total, it took about 15 mins for me. As I said, I don’t have a candy thermometer so I couldn’t tell when it got to the correct temp. I also never got to the stage where it seemed to “thread” when I raised the spoon. Because I didn’t want the disaster I had the day before with a house full of burnt sugar smell (which I can tell you is not the least bit pleasant), I took a chance when the mixture seemed to “pull” from the bottom of the saucepan in one large mass. I spread it onto my baking sheet lined with parchment and success!!! It’s quite good and I look forward to the next step of trying the chocolate chip w/toffee cookies.
could you pour this into molds?
Hi Else! We haven’t tried that, so I can’t say for sure! Let us know how it goes if you experiment with this 🙂
Recently have become addicted to toffee. I m a llitle tired of heath and prices of some online companies is just too much. I decided to try making it myself. This recipe is great! I had to make a few adjustments but it turned out great. I doubled the recipe using 1 cup white sugar and I cup light brown sugar and margarine. Your directions are so user friendly, THANK YOU!!
Glad you enjoyed this recipe, Rebecca!