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.
I have made your chocolate chewy chocolate chip cookies and was wondering if you can use
Couverture semi chocolates in the chocolate chip cookie instead of semi chocolate chips?than you
Dianna
I have bought your book and magazine WHICH I CANNOT PUT DOWN. I HAVE LEARNED A LOT!! Thank you.
Hi Dianna! Yay, we’re so thrilled to hear that you’re loving Tessa’s wonderful book and magazine!! 🙂 As for your question, couverture chocolate tends to melt faster due to the higher percentage of cocoa butter it contains, so it may get a touch messy in chocolate chip cookies – but I’m sure it would also be super delicious! Check out this recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, which uses a combination of regular semisweet chocolate chips as well as higher-end chocolate baking wafers. This combo might be perfect for you 🙂 Happy baking!
I live in Europe and I don’t have access to butter with less fat, so I was wondering if it was possible to use margarine instead?
Hi Mina! We don’t advise using margarine because it won’t react the same way as butter, as it’s made from oils – and it won’t taste as good, either! I would recommend experimenting with any butters you can find with 80% butterfat, if possible – and if you cannot find such a butter available, you are more than welcome to experiment, but we have not seen much success with butters containing over 80% butterfat, unfortunately. Let us know how it goes 🙂
simple ingredients easy to make good instructions and delicious 😉
Hi I used publix unsalted sweet cream butter which is a stick style butter that I thought was american but online it says it contains 82% fat and separated when I tried the recipe. I tried researching which brands had 80% but I can’t find anything. Can you let me know which brand of butter you used please
Hi London! Tessa loves using Challenge unsalted butter for all baking, but Land O Lakes is a great choice too. Good luck!
I just made this and after 2 attempts have 2 batches. The first, I thought I’d try European butter (Kerrygold) since its all I had. And just as the notes say, it didn’t firm up. In hindsight I might do this on purpose next time and use it in ice cream!
But I went out and got America butter (Land-o-Lakes) and tried again. That set up nicely and worked as expected. (It actually separated right at the end, but I was able to bring it back by adding about 1 tbl boiling water and stirring back to temp.)
But I thought I’d try some of the comments and try to redeem the first batch instead of throw it out.
So I put it back on the heat, added about 2 tsp Molasses (didn’t have Corn Syrup) and 1 tbl boiling water. I then just re-followed the instructions heating it back to temp and it worked! I don’t know if it’s smart to add the water at any other point in the process with European butter, but this trick did work for me.
Thanks!
Turned out GREAT after a trial & error.
My first attempt I took off too soon (oops went by time rather than temp).
It was still soft, BUT I read a comment saying you could just put it back in the pot and heat it back up.
I did this and after whisking a lot to get it to combine again, got it up to temperature and now I have toffee bits!
Thanks for the recipe and the commenter who gave the tip to reheat any too-soft attempts!
I rate the website and idea 5 stars! My skills or instinct without a candy thermometer is like 2 stars. I made this twice. The first separated at 9min after adding the sugar. Removing from heat at the first signs of separation and whisking was a lost cause. It looked like a peanut blob oozing oil uncontrollably. It became too hard to stir and not splash the hot separated butter all over the kitchen and my clothing. I had to throw that one in the sink. I then tried a second batch at slightly lower temperatures. I kept mixing and this time it separated after 6 min. I may have mixed too aggressively and sped up the separation. Rather than try to save this one, I immediately dumped it onto the cookie sheet to see if it would be edible after sponging all the buttery sweat off its brow like a 15th round boxer.
Hi Seth! Oh no, I’m sorry you had issues making this toffee! First question: did you use European-style butter? Any butter over about 80% butterfat will cause this toffee to separate, unfortunately. The other issue could be the saucepan you’re using. If you use a pan with a thinner base, the temperature might be too harsh for the toffee and it might cause it to separate due to the temperature being too high. If you ever give this another try, be sure to use 80% butterfat butter, and keep the temperature a little lower and/or use a thick-based pan, and if it starts to separate, stir as vigorously as possible (without splashing yourself!) off the heat or over a very low heat, until it comes back together. I hope that helps! Best of luck!!
This is a great recipe! Came out perfect. I only had salted butter so I cut back on the salt.
Hello,
I live in Europe. Can somebody tell me what is the average fat percentage of an American butter?
Thanks,
Mirjam
Hi Mirjam! Most American-style butters will contain about 80% butterfat. Most European butters contain 82% or higher. We have yet to find a way to make this recipe work, without separating, using a butter containing more than 80% butterfat. If you are able to find a butter with 80% fat, let us know how it goes. Good luck 🙂
How do store thede chips and for how long can they be stored?
Hi Pamela! You can store these for about a week inside an airtight container or a ziptop bag 🙂
Hi there I’m confused on American vs European butter I use Kerrygold would that work?
Hi Tiffany! Kerrygold is a European-style butter, so it has a higher butterfat content and will therefore likely cause the toffee to split. If you’re in the US, try using Challenge or Land o Lakes or a similar American-style butter 🙂
Why is this recipe only good for one week after being cooked?
Hi Barbara! It may last longer than that, but it should be good for at least a week. It all depends on your weather and environment. It may start to get soft after a week or so if it’s very humid and/or hot where you live. We just like to be cautious when giving shelf-life estimates, and err on the side of caution. Let us know what you think if you give this toffee a try!