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.
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 (make sure to use American unsalted butter – European butter has too much butterfat and the toffee will separate)
- Light brown sugar
- Salt
Why American-Style Butter Only?
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 and unfortunately, we have yet to find a way to make this recipe work with butter containing higher percentages of fat. If you are successful in creating a hard toffee using European-style butter, please let us know in the comments below.
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:
- Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Coffee Toffee Crunch Muffins
- Salted Caramel Toffee Cupcakes
- Caramel Apple Streusel Pie
- Toffee Brownies
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Homemade Toffee Bits
Ingredients
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted American butter*
- 1 cup (200 grams) light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
Instructions
- Line a small rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In a heavy-bottomed small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the sugar and salt 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
Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I often see delicious recipes that call for toffee bits. I would just buy them, but the only ones I can find have almonds in them. My daughter is allergic to tree nuts… so I can’t use those. I’ll try your recipe and then I can put your toffee bits in all those other recipes!
So happy your daughter can now enjoy toffee bits and baked goods made with toffee bits, Erica!! 🙂
Brilliant! Just made it to avoid a trip to the grocery to make your toffee cookie recipe. It was easy and turned out perfect. And is delicious…. But now I need more brown sugar for the cookie dough, so need to go to the grocery. Lol. Thank you!
Yay! So excited to hear that you loved these toffee bits! I’m sorry you still had to go to the grocery store, though!
I can’t thank you enough for this recipe! As a mom to a nut allergy child, store bought toffee often contains almonds. So using this recipe helps me to use toffee in more recipes now without my son being left out of the deliciousness!!
So excited you love this toffee recipe, Trish! Glad your son can now enjoy more baked goods 🙂
Hi,
I know you say it’s best not to refrigerate or freeze the toffee. But, does that apply if I want to mix up my cookie dough and place it in the refrigerator for a couple of days before baking?
Thanks
Hi Madeline! No, that rule doesn’t apply if the toffee is in cookie dough 🙂 We recommend most of our cookie doughs be refrigerated (24-72 hours) before baking (including this delicious recipe, which uses the homemade toffee bits!), so you can absolutely do that with these homemade toffee pieces mixed in 🙂
This is such a great recipe. I recently used it in a batch of cookies for a bake off and it worked amazingly. Strongly recommend!
1. You may have to stir VIGOROUSLY if your sugar and butter separate.
2. It can sometimes be salvaged by adding water one tablespoon at a time to a max of 1/4 cup, then slowly reheating. The water melts the sugar again.
BUT BE PATIENT. ONE tablespoon at a time because it may take only one, stir like crazy on low heat, and the second the sugar and butter combine again snatch that puppy of the stove and pour it out to cool.
Hope this helps someone!
Your suggestion with the water SAVED my toffee!! It kept separating but with a little water and vigorous stirring it came back together!! THANK YOU!!
I will never buy toffee bits again. This was so easy! I was skeptical at first because when I poured the mixture on to parchment paper, it didn’t spread very well. I used a spoon to help it spread and waited 20 minutes to check on it. It tasted so good, and had the perfect consistency of not too hard, and not too soft. Can’t wait to add it to the brown butter chocolate chip toffee cookie recipe!
So happy you tried this recipe out! I agree, it’s hard to stop eating them! 🙂
Have you used this recipe to make peanut brittle?
We haven’t, but please let us know how it goes if you give it a try!
Just made this toffee (will be using it for the browned butter chocolate chip cookie recipe tomorrow). First time ever making toffee and it went really well! Directions were east to follow and the little piece I tasted of it is amazing! Cannot wait to try this in the cookie recipe tomorrow! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
So happy you love this recipe! Enjoy your cookies 🙂
Thank you for sharing this recipe. It turned out perfectly.
So glad you loved them!
I used this toffee recipe for some salted caramel browned butter cookies. It worked so well in the dough. The toffee tastes so good! I’ve been snacking on the extra toffee pieces!
I think that’s the best part of this recipe…the leftovers haha! So glad you love them 🙂
Ive tried this but I can’t get it to come put crunchy. It turns out more like chewy caramel.
Hi Leslie! I’ve actually had that happen to my toffee in the past, and it was because I didn’t boil the mixture long enough. Did you use a digital thermometer to verify temp or just use the visual indicator (referencing Tessa’s pics in the pink box above the recipe)?
I recently tried to make King Arthur’s English Toffee and my butter and sugar separated terribly. I ended up pouring off a puddle of butter after it hardened but luckily it was still yummy. Their recipe instructed to not stir at all after initially stirring in the sugar…my question is: is your recipe equivalent to a butter crunch toffee for making English toffee? And then: Any idea why that recipe required no stirring while Tessa instructs to continually stir? I’m so confused! Haha. And would really love to perfect my toffee game. Thank you for any insight!
Hi Amber! Our recipe is not equivalent to a butter crunch toffee. Sorry to hear your English Toffee recipe didn’t work out well! One thing I love about King Arthur Baking is that they typically include a blog post separate from their recipes that goes into more detail regarding the process. I’m linking theirs HERE. I checked it out, and they do note that if your syrup mixture is boiled too quickly, the butter and sugar can separate. Any time you’re working with a recipe that includes caramel, or toffee in this case, stirring can actually be detrimental to the recipe as it can cause the sugar mixture to splash onto the sides of your pan, causing the liquid to evaporate, which allows the sugar to form back into its crystal form. I hope that helps! I’d recommend reading through the comments on their recipe to see if anyone else experienced that issue, or commenting yourself for some help. They’re pretty good at responding 🙂