Best Homemade Toffee Recipe
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This is the BEST Homemade Toffee and such an easy recipe to make! With only four simple ingredients, this delicious buttery toffee is a much-loved candy to make often!
The holidays and making this easy, delicious Toffee recipe go hand-in-hand for me. Candy making in general is always something I do around the holidays – especially for Christmas! My Christmas candies always include so many delicious confections such as my Peppermint Bark, Divinity and this. But I don’t save this Toffee to make only during the holidays! It is perfect year-round and can be made with just a few ingredients. While it does have to set to harden, it only involves a few minutes of hands-on mixing time, so it’s no wonder that I make it often.
Toffee is really so easy to make once you figure out a couple of basics, that you can easily make a few batches within an hour or so! It makes delicious gifts to share with friends and family or to serve throughout the holiday season or anytime you wish!
Easy Toffee Recipe
Believe me when I say this though, this toffee is so scrumptious and tempting, you want to make this and then invite some friends over to enjoy. Or immediately wrap it into gift packages. Otherwise, you just may be tempted to eat it all yourself. Promise.
You’ll be shocked at how easy this toffee recipe is to make! With four simple ingredients that you probably have on hand right now, you could really have a batch made soon for sampling.
Here’s how I make it.
How to Make Toffee
You’ll need:
- Roasted Pecans (optional)
- Brown Sugar
- Butter
- Chocolate Chips
Step by Step Instructions
- Prep. To make this Easy Toffee Recipe, first line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, such as a Silpat. If you are using nuts, sprinkle 1/2 cup roasted pecans on top and spread evenly.
- Heat. Then melt brown sugar and butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil until a candy thermometer reaches 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Then immediately remove from heat and pour over roasted nuts.
- Spread. Top with chocolate chips and allow chips to begin melting. Spread chocolate evenly over top of toffee with a silicone spatula.
- Cool. Allow to cool for about five minutes before adding remaining roasted pecans. If omitting the roasted pecans from your recipe, consider sprinkling the top of the chocolate with sea salt. Allow toffee to cool completely to harden – overnight on the counter or for about 20 minutes in the freezer.
- Serve. Lift hardened toffee off of the parchment paper or Silpat baking mat and break into candy pieces.
For Thicker Toffee Pieces
If you want the thicker toffee pieces like I have shared in my pictures, you will line a 7 x 11 inch casserole dish with parchment paper rather than using a baking sheet. The freezing time increases to 30 minutes if you use that method to harden the toffee.
Do You Have to Use Nuts in the Toffee?
You don’t have to use nuts if you don’t want. But…
I use roasted pecans in my toffee recipe, but you could easily substitute another roasted nut or just completely omit the nuts if you prefer. If you do omit the nuts though, do me a favor and add a heavy sprinkle of sea salt on top of the melted chocolate as it begins to firm up. You really do need that little bit of salty-sweet combination that comes from this toffee. I promise you’ll be glad you did.
Toffee Makes Great Gifts!
And since I’m full of promises today, here is my third one…If you give this toffee as presents during the holidays, you will absolutely without a doubt be asked for the recipe and have folks singing your praises. Promise.
How to Make Ahead, Store and Freeze Toffee
This toffee makes the perfect make ahead recipe!
Make Ahead
Prepare as directed and store in an airtight container.
Store
Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Freeze
You can also easily freeze toffee. Freeze in an airtight, freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
More Favorite Candy Recipes
Some of these candies are traditional holiday favorites, but all are so delicious and can be enjoyed anytime!
Here’s my favorite toffee recipe of all time. I hope you make it soon!
Toffee Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup roasted pecans, divided (optional)
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat, such as a Silpat. If using nuts, sprinkle 1/2 cup roasted pecans on top and spread evenly.
- Using a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, melt brown sugar and butter, stirring constantly. Boil until a candy thermometer reaches 300º F. Immediately remove from heat and pour over roasted nuts. Top with chocolate chips and allow chips to begin melting. Spread chocolate evenly over top of toffee with a silicon spatula. Allow to cool for about five minutes before adding remaining roasted pecans.
- If omitting the roasted pecans from your recipe, consider sprinkling top of chocolate with sea salt.
- Allow to cool completely to harden – overnight on counter or about 20 minutes in the freezer. Lift hardened toffee off parchment paper or silpat and break into candy pieces.
- Optional: for thicker toffee pieces (as pictured), I line a 7×11 casserole dish with parchment paper rather than using a baking sheet. Freezing time increases to 30 minutes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
From the Add a Pinch recipe archives. Originally published 2012.
Made this for the first time today. it was super easy, and came together very quickly. I will definitely make this again!
Thank you, Linda, for giving this recipe a try. I’m happy you found it so easy to make and will make it again.
Hi Robin, I’m Jackie. I love your dessert recipes and I’ll be making your toffee sometime tomorrow. I love toffee and I’m going to eat the whole pan myself. I don’t care about how much weight I gained I just want to have some fun. But I have a question for you. For the life of me I went through all of your blogs to find the chocolate fudge frosting recipe. And I can’t find it anywhere! Would you please forward it to me as it is not listed anywhere that I can see and I really want to use that frosting on those vanilla cupcakes of yours.
Thankyou,sweet lady.
Jackie, it’s my Fudge Icing Recipe. I hope you enjoy the cupcakes.
I love this toffee recipe!! I followed the recipe to the letter and used the roasted pecans as recommended. What a difference they make!! Yummy!!!
What size cookie sheet do you use for the Easy Toffee Candy, Robyn?
Thank you Robyn for this Toffee Recipe! It’s so delicious. I made a batch to test it out over the weekend and my family loved it. I can’t wait to make some more and bring it into my work holiday party =)
Thank you, Lynn. So glad your family loved it. Hope everyone enjoys it at your party.
To those whose butter separated out from the sugar, this happened to me on the first try. I read on the Challenge Butter website, that using salted butter often eliminates this. Second try, used salted butter; melted butter sticks halfway, then added brown sugar; lowered heat and slowly brought mixture up to temp, stirring constantly. It worked!
I have made pastries for many years and have many variations and even pastries of my own concoction.
Many of the old world items I make are said to require the humidity to be under 15% ( all brittles,toffee’s, etc), I am unsure if it is true but the old women swear it is, and who am I to say they are wrong.
My question is, if this is true why isn’t it indicated in cook books or is it just the old gal’s way of saying, I need a break too.
SEMPER FI
I live in a humid area and I find it affects everything I bake, especially ant toffee bark recipes and cookies.