This is a recipe I am still developing
Cuisine: English
Cooking time: Under 1 hour
Notes
Heavy cream and vinegar can be omitted if desired. Vinegar is added to prevent sugar crystallization. Cream of tartar is typically used instead of vinegar, but cream of tartar is not easily accessible where I live, so I use vinegar instead. Heavy cream functions to make the toffee a teeny bit softer while retaining that sticky chewy texture. If you like your toffee even firmer, it can be omitted. If you prefer a softer toffee, you can either add a little bit more cream or only heat the sugar to the “soft crack” stage.
Butter should be actual butter. Not margarine or a butter-vegetable oil combination. Butter is necessary for correct emulsification. My first trial was with a butter-vegetable oil combination spread, but the vegetable oil did not emulsify and instead I was left with a smaller batch of toffee that was just covered in vegetable oil.
When stored the toffee pieces have a tendency to stick together. So I suggest either storing it as large chunks that you break when needed, or breaking it apart and then storing the pieces separated with parchment paper or lightly dusting the pieces with sugar (or something else) to prevent them from sticking together
Preamble
This recipe was based on Tasting History - English Toffee
Actual recipe
Ingredients
- 400g light-brown sugar or a mix of light and brown sugar (40% dark and 60% light is pretty good)
- 150 ml water
- 200 g salted butter
- 1 tsp of vinegar (Apple likely best, but choice likely has very little effect on end result)
- 10ml heavy cream (Can probably be substituted with milk, haven't tested that though)
Method
- Prepare an appropriate heatproof dish. Line with parchment paper.
- Stir together the brown sugar and water in the pan, then put the pan over low heat and stir. The sugar should dissolve to make a syrup in about 5 to 8 minutes, and as soon as it starts to steam, add in the butter. Stir to help the butter melt. At this point, you can stir in a bit of vinegar (/cream of tartar) to help prevent crystallization. Once the butter has melted, stop stirring and put a candy thermometer on the pot.
- Keep the heat low while the candy heats. Once it hits around 105°C, it will slow or even stop rising in temperature, but keep it on low heat, and it will start to rise again. This can take about 30 minutes. You want the temperature to reach 150°C, or the hard crack stage.
- Take the pot off the heat and stir in the vinegar and heavy cream. Incorporate the heavy cream gradually as the toffee may solidify as you pour it in. Then pour the toffee into the prepared pan. Let the toffee cool and set up, about 10 mins.
- When the toffee has set up, take it out of the pan and break it up into pieces by lightly hitting it with a hammer or other object, then serve it forth.