Toffee, no not coffee, I said TOFFEE

I love to make candy,
and it's really easy,


once you understand it.



The most important part of making most candy is the thermometer

and knowing how to use it.

You may remember my post about making Butterfingers

So important to make sure that thermometer is NOT touching the bottom of your pan!

And that the liquid is covering enough of the thermometer to cover the mercury portion at the bottom.

Oh and make sure when steam is rising from your pot that you can still read your thermometer.

So once you've mastered the thermometer,

Candy making is easy,
at least some are.

This is one of those recipes. Or I should say two of those recipes.

I saw a post somewhere that talked about this cookbook

Found it on Amazon for under $5.00!
Now before you all go off running to buy this book, you get what you pay for. There are no pictures to drool over, and it's really probably only 300 recipes, (change milk chocolate to white chocolate or walnuts to pecans and it's a "new" recipe)
But there are some good recipes in here. So it's worth the $5.00.

Ok, So I have to test this book out. And I already know how to make Toffee, I got the recipe from my sister years ago (remember, she's the one I call Martha Stewart, if you want to know more about her read this post)

My Sister's Recipe ingredients

1 cup butter
2 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 - 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


The Ultimate Candy Book recipe ingredients

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
1/4 water
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

As candy recipes go, this is a huge difference, so you all know what I do....


I make both!

Someone has to tell you which is the better toffee, and they both have chocolate on them!

So here we go....

For both recipes you want a well buttered jelly roll pan or use a parchment lined jelly roll pan (still butter your parchment paper) at the ready.

Sister's Toffee

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

In a 3 quart saucepan (I used a 2 quart) over medium high heat, bring butter, sugar and corn syrup to a boil,

 stirring constantly,

Cook 20 minutes longer at same heat. STIRRING CONSTANTLY.

Your candy thermometer should then read 295 degrees.

Remove from heat and pour into you prepared pan.

Let cool 5-10 minutes

then sprinkle chocolate chips on top,

wait another minute or two for the chocolate to start melting,

then spread completely with spatula.

Let cool completely before using a slim spatula to slide under toffee to break into pieces.

The Ultimate Candy Book recipe

1 1/2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Melt butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat, add sugar, water and corn syrup.

Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.

 Bring the mixture to a boil WITHOUT STIRRING.

Using a candy thermometer, continue to cook, WITHOUT STIRRING,

until the mixture reaches 300 degrees, (hard crack.)

Remove pan from heat and immediately pour into prepared jelly roll pan.

Allow candy to cool for about 5-10 minutes,

then sprinkle chocolate chips over top,

let rest a minute (for chocolate to start to melt) then spread evenly to coat.

Let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

OK, here are the results

Ultimate candy book-left,  Sister's-right

First, use parchment paper if you have it, just super easy to remove candy from pan that way.

Sister's Toffee-
good flavor,
lighter in color
hard as a rock,
breaks more in chunks (less splintering)
great for packaging and shipping

Ultimate Candy Book
excellent buttery flavor
darker in color
crackles when you bite it (so while hard, it's not as hard as Sister's)
Splinters when breaking so lots of little bits (crumbs)
Has a very greasy feel when you touch it (all that butter)

I had everyone in the house (and a few outside of it) do a taste test.
The Ultimate Candy Book won hands down on taste.
If I'm making the toffee for home, I'll use this recipe.

But if I'm making toffee as a gift, I'll use my Sister's recipe. It packages better.

And one last note, you can add nuts to your toffee, just stir them in right before pouring into your jellyroll pan.