Toffee¶
Directions¶
Recipe first, commentary later. Should take between 30 minutes and an hour.
Ingredients¶
500 g light brown sugar
250 g salted butter
200 mL water
1 Tblsp vinegar[1]
Equipment¶
Cookie sheets (2-3)
Parchment paper
A little extra butter
Medium heavy pot
Candy thermometer
Wooden spoon
Chop the Butter¶
250 g salted butter
Chop the butter into manageable chunks to make it easier for it to melt in. Don’t put it back in the refrigerator.
Dissolve the Sugar¶
500 g sugar
200 mL water
Put the sugar and water in the pot and set on low heat. Stir until the sugar is well dissolved. 5-8 minutes, until it starts steaming.
Add Butter¶
250 g salted butter
1 Tblsp vinegar
Gently stir in the butter. Keep stirring until it’s completely melted, but don’t be too vigorous about it. This may result in a layer of molten butter on top of the water. That’s ok. When the butter’s melted, stir in the vinegar.
Cook¶
Turn the heat up to medium (5 on my stove) and stick in the thermometer. It should start bubbling and frothing. This is why we have a medium pot, not a small one. Stop stirring.
Line Pan¶
While that starts heating, grease your cookie sheets with butter and line them with parchment paper.
More Cooking¶
We’re going to get to between 300°F and 310°F. That’s about 150°C, but I find it easier to watch in Fahrenheit. It will take around half an hour. Once it’s hot enough, pour it out onto the cookie sheet. Cool on the counter or in the fridge, then smash and enjoy.
Commentary¶
Interestingly, when it gets to 220°F (105°C) or so, the temperature will stall for a bit (and maybe go down) before continuing to rise. Aren’t phase transitions fun?
Separation¶
After it’s been cooking for a while, sometimes the butter will have separated out (or failed to completely incorporate into the mixture). If that happens, and you have an oily layer on top, you can try stirring water in, a little at a time, to get it to mix back together. I find that this only happens if I have my heat too low.
Burning¶
When it gets close to the target temperature, pay close attention. If you wait too long (or have the heat too high) it will burn.
Stirring¶
Once the butter is melted, this really doesn’t need to be stirred. It can go the entire rest of its cook time without being stirred at all. If you do need to stir it (for example, to get the butter to be less separated) do so slowly. Be careful not to splash it around or scrape sugar crystals from the side of the pot.
Hard Crack¶
You can check if it’s ready without a thermometer (or if you don’t trust your thermometer) by taking a bit and dropping it in a glass of cold water. It should form thin threads that snap when you bend them.
Shapes¶
I find that silicone molds for chocolates or cool small ice cubes (or candies) work very well with this. Take some from the pot with a spoon and fill the mold while it’s still hot, and you’ll end up with fun shapes.
For the first batch I made, I poured it into a 9” brownie pan (lined with parchment paper) and it came out pretty thick. Still good, but much harder to break and harder to get small pieces. I find the thin layer that doesn’t get to the edges of a cookie sheet is easier to break up into munchable pieces.
Induction¶
The candy thermometer I have is electronic, and badly shielded. It works perfectly fine until it comes in contact with a liquid that’s being heated on my induction stove.
As soon as it touches the boiling toffee, it shuts off, then does a segment test, then blinks the temperature, then shuts off. This cycle continues until it’s no longer touching the thing whose temperature I want to measure.
I got around it by wrapping the body in aluminum foil that’s in electrical contact with the pot, plus some fiddling. If you have an induction stove (the best kind of stove) I recommend an analog thermometer.
Credit¶
Most of this recipe comes from Max Miller’s interpretation of a recipe in Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery with various bits incorporated from forums, other toffee recipes, and my experience making it.