Over the summer, I spent a month in London studying abroad. While there, I searched high and low, from Oxford to Piccadilly Circus, for a good hard English toffee. While I was able to find toffee, it was softer and chewy which isn’t what I had come to know as “English Toffee.” Now that I’m back in the states, I’ve been craving toffee once again. This is a recipe that my family has been using for years. Growing up my mom never really dabbled in candy making (the exception being the family recipes for fudge and rocky road).

While the idea of making candy may be daunting, This step by step recipe will ease your stress throughout the process. I have tried to include pictures of every step as I go along and am looking into adding a video of the process as well. I definitely don’t recommend trying to multitask while making this candy though.

english toffee

English Toffee

Ingredients:

  • 4 Cup Almonds, chopped
  •  2 Cups Unsalted Butter
  • 1/2 Cup Water
  • 1/4 Cup Light Corn Syrup
  • 2 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar
  • 2 Cups Semisweet Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Cover a 9x 13 pan with foil and set aside.

2. In a large heavy saucepan, combine butter, water, corn syrup, and sugar.

3. Stir continuously over high heat and stir with a  wooden spoon until the mixture begins to boil. Continue to stir, mixture will become thicker.

4. Reduce heat to low. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. Continue to stir on heat until mixture reaches the Hard crack stage.

5. If you do not have a candy thermometer, you can fill a small bowl with ice water. Drop a small amount of the toffee mixture into the ice water. If it hardens and you can snap it in half, the mixture is done.

6. Once the Toffee has reached the hard crack stage, pour into the buttered pan. While the toffee is still hot, pour the chocolate chips on top. They will begin to melt from the heat of the toffee. Using a spatula, spread the melting chocolate chips across the toffee until evenly covered.

7. Sprinkle the chopped almonds evenly on top of the chocolate. you can gently press them down with a clean spatula or spoon to make sure that they are stuck well in the chocolate.

8. Allow the toffee to cool at room temperature at least two hours or overnight.

9. Once the toffee has cooled and the chocolate has hardened, you can remove from the pan and break up. Store at room temperature in an air tight container.

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