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Home Recipes Candy Recipes

How To Make Homemade Toffee - Every Fail You Can Encounter, and How to Fix It

Published: Dec 13, 2017 · Modified: Apr 18, 2020 by Sandi Gaertner · 31 Comments · This post may contain affiliate links

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Making homemade toffee can be harder than it looks. I'll show you every toffee fail you can possibly have and how to fix them all. Then, I'll share my homemade toffee recipe for chocolate-covered toffee with pistachios.

This post is for you for all the times you made toffee from scratch and failed. I tried to make homemade toffee, and I messed up everything possible.

Homemade toffee candy with chocolate and pistachios on top
Jump to:
  • How to Make Homemade Toffee:
  • Common toffee making mistakes:
  • Second attempt at making toffee:
  • What color does toffee become when cooking?
  • How to prevent toffee from separating:
  • And here we have FAIL #2.
  • Why chocolate didn't stick to toffee:
  • Tools:
  • 📖 Recipe
  • Fearless Dining
  • 💬 Comments

It took three tries...two of which ended up in the trash. I am sharing everything I learned, and a video that shows some of my "bloopers" and tough lessons. If you love chocolate desserts as much as I do, you will want to check out my best gluten free chocolate desserts.

How to Make Homemade Toffee:

Today, we are going to talk about homemade toffee. I love the stuff but had never thought to make it from scratch. I wanted to give it a try, and I found a great toffee recipe here. The recipe by FunkySeaMonkey looked easy enough.

I was naive to think this pistachio toffee candy would be easy to make...I could almost taste the buttery crunch of the toffee! I had great plans to use this toffee as a topping for a dessert I created...not to mention my kids wanted to make teacher gifts with it.

A pot of cooking toffee where the butter separated out. It looks oily.

FAIL #1:

Butter separating out

Here was my first attempt at making this homemade toffee recipe. I had my two cups of sugar and two cups of butter. I didn't realize how important temperature could be. See that buttery oil slick on top of my toffee?

My first batch of toffee started out great...I had a pot of boiling toffee. It was browning beautifully. Then, butter happened.

Spreading toffee out on parchment paper after the butter separated out

The butter separated from the toffee, leaving a big oil slick-looking goo.

You can see it when I dumped the toffee onto the parchment paper. Nothing is more frustrating than when the butter separates from the sugar in cooking toffee!

Common toffee making mistakes:

Here are the mistakes I made on the first batch of homemade toffee:

  • I started out with way too high of a heat. (At least, I think this was an issue.) I set my portable cooktop at 260 degrees F.
  • I stirred too quickly. I didn't realize this could be an issue.
  • I didn't add a dash of salt. They say you can save a ruined batch of toffee by adding a dash of salt. It didn't work for me with this batch, but I added a little salt in my second attempt.

To combat these issues, I tossed this batch of greasy, buttery toffee into the trash and started again.

Second attempt at making toffee:

butter and sugar melting in a sauce pan

This time, I started out with a lower heat starting temperature on my cooking surface. I gradually melted the sugar and butter and heated up my toffee.

a whisk drizzling some hot toffee back into a sauce pan

Things are thickening up nicely, and the butter is still behaving!

Toffee Making Tips:

I used the whisk, mixing slowly. I like to think this allowed the sugar to blend into the butter as the toffee mixture heated up.

Cooking toffee in a sauce pan to a golden color

What color does toffee become when cooking?

The homemade toffee is ready. See the beautiful golden brown color? And the butter stayed mixed in with the sugar. (YAY!)

How to prevent toffee from separating:

  • To prevent separation this time, I used a whisk to mix the toffee ingredients gradually. (I tried not to stir too often, but when I did, I used the whisk.)
  • I slowly cooked my toffee mixture to the perfect 300 F. I started my cooktop at 160 F degrees and gradually increased the temperature to 212 F.
  • My toffee browned beautifully, and I poured it onto the pan.

So far, everything was perfect. The butter didn't separate, and the toffee looked creamy and delicious. Time to add the melted chocolate and pistachios.

Warm pistachio covered chocolate toffee being lifted slightly so you can see the underside

The chocolate spread perfectly onto the chocolate. You can see how quickly the pistachio toffee hardens. See the underside? I put the tray in the freezer to cool for a few minutes.

Breaking homemade toffee into pieces

I removed the tray and broke apart the toffee.

And here we have FAIL #2.

The chocolate didn't stick to the toffee. So now I had a great thin chocolate layer broken into bits and a separate toffee layer all broken into bits. Ugh, this is not looking good for chocolate-covered toffee!

I went to Google once again to see what could have caused the chocolate not to stick to the toffee.

Why chocolate didn't stick to toffee:

  • This likely happened because the toffee was already starting to cool before I added the melted chocolate.
  • Some recommend putting the chocolate bits on top of the toffee and letting the heat from the toffee melt the chocolate.
  • Another recommendation I found was to dust cocoa powder on top of the toffee just before adding the melted chocolate.

By this point, I was a little over all of my failures!

I did what any person who is tired of tossing food into the trash would do. I microwaved the chocolate back on! (I didn't have the heart to toss another batch of pistachio toffee in the trash!)

homemade toffee with chocolate and pistachios. A hand is holding up a piece

Here is a video I put together to show you my whole process for making this homemade toffee recipe. I didn't include the video of the buttery disaster of the first batch, but you can see that in the pictures above!

More easy homemade candy recipes to try:

  • Quick and Easy Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge , or this Turmeric White Chocolate Bark
  • Easy 3 Ingredient Chocolate Bark
  • 3 Ingredient Minty White Chocolate Fudge
  • Dark Chocolate Truffles

What do you think? Are you ready to make some homemade pistachio toffee for yourself?

Tools:

  1. An easy to read candy thermometer.
  2. A strong whisk to ensure the mixture blends well.

📖 Recipe

homemade toffee with chocolate and pistachios

Homemade Chocolate Pistachio Toffee

Sandi Gaertner
A homemade toffee recipe with pistachios
5 from 21 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save RecipeSaved!
Prevent your screen from going dark
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 20 minutes mins
Total Time 40 minutes mins
Course Gluten Free Dessert Recipes
Cuisine American
Servings 24
Calories 250 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 sticks butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 16 ounces dark chocolate
  • ½ cup roasted pistachios
  • dash salt

Instructions
 

  • Add sugar, butter, salt, and vanilla to a pot.
  • Cook on medium-low heat until blended. Use a whisk to blend slowly.
  • Gradually increase the heat and let the mixture boil. It should thicken and darken to a golden color.
  • Continue to whisk to blend every few minutes. Mix slowly.
  • Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe dish.
  • When your toffee is a dark golden color and registers 300 F degrees with a candy thermometer, remove and pour onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
  • Spread thinly over the parchment paper. Quickly dust lightly with cocoa powder and then quickly add the melted chocolate.
  • Use a spatula to spread the melted chocolate over the toffee. Add pistachios.
  • Refrigerate to cool. When the mixture is hardened, break apart then store the toffee in a container.

Video

Notes

Please see the important tips I learned from my fails. I write them up quite a bit in my blog post.

SPECIAL NOTE

Please know that every gluten free flour blend has a different starch to grain ratio. If you use a blend I didn't test, you may need to adjust your moisture levels in your baked goods.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 250kcalCarbohydrates: 29gProtein: 2gFat: 15gSaturated Fat: 8gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 22mgSodium: 83mgFiber: 2gSugar: 26g
Tried this Recipe? Pin it for Later!Mention @FearlessDining or tag #FearlessDining!

Nutrition Disclaimer

Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Liz

    December 21, 2021 at 5:48 pm

    Can I throw my failed toffe with the chocolate on it and try again by heating it up again in a pot

    Reply
    • Sandi Gaertner

      December 21, 2021 at 7:27 pm

      Hi Liz, to be honest, I am not sure. Where did it fail? Is the butter incorporated into the sugar mixture? Are you using a candy thermometer while making this recipe?

      Reply
  2. Lisa

    June 29, 2021 at 7:07 pm

    5 stars
    Instead of throwing out a failed toffee. it can be re-melted slowly with water, milk or similar to make ice cream or pancake syrup, or dissolve and add to cake batter, taking into consideration the quantity of sugar and butter.

    Reply
    • Sandi Gaertner

      June 30, 2021 at 1:54 pm

      Great idea Lisa, thank you!

      Reply
  3. Moira

    May 03, 2021 at 7:38 pm

    If you used chocolate chips, that's the reason the chocolate didn't stick. Since chocolate chips are mainly used in chocolate chip cookies, they are also meant to hold their shape and they have ingredients in them to stop them from melting and spreading out. You need to use a melting chocolate with out any waxes or vegetable oils, or a high quality dipping chocolate to stop your chocolate layer from separating from your toffee. Also, it can take up to 10 minutes for your sugar to dissolve. Once it's been completely dissolved then you can turn the heat up.

    Reply
  4. Jenny

    February 16, 2021 at 12:59 pm

    Hey! What a great recipe, thanks for sharing it! The batch of toffee I just made turned out beautiful, but a little to hard. Any suggestions? Thanks so much!!!

    Reply
    • Sandi Gaertner

      February 16, 2021 at 9:22 pm

      Hi Jenny, What temperature boiling point did you use? It is possible your temperature was too high.

      Reply
  5. Dawn Morgan

    December 21, 2020 at 12:28 pm

    I made toffee just recently for the 1st time. It tastes good, but the toffee did not harden. I got it to temp the chocolate spread great but I don't know what I did.

    Reply
    • Sandi Gaertner

      December 21, 2020 at 2:03 pm

      Hi Dawn, did you check the temperature of the boiling sugar mixture? I think when the toffee is soft it may not have cooked long enough at the right temperature.

      Reply
  6. Vickie H.

    December 06, 2020 at 6:25 am

    I made several batches of toffee for Christmas but two of the batches were flops. One batch the butter separated and the second was too soft. The problem is, while they were cooling, I spread the batches with chocolate and almonds. Do I need to scrape the chocolate and almonds off to try and re-heat and salvage? Can they be salvaged or should I just discard the batches? Thank you for your help.

    Reply
    • Sandi Gaertner

      December 06, 2020 at 7:51 am

      Hi Vickie, I don't think you can salvage when the butter separates. I couldn't on mine and ended up tossing them. The one that was too soft may have been if your toffee didn't heat enough when cooking. Toffee can be really frustrating, but once you get it, you can make it much easier the next time. Good luck.

      Reply
  7. Michelle

    November 10, 2020 at 9:29 pm

    5 stars
    Hi this looks amazing!
    I’m trying to bake this with dark chocolate but I can’t get the chocolate to temper properly and stick to the base. If I temper the chocolate properly and add to a cooled base it breaks off. If I melt the chocolate on a warm base so it sticks, I get tempering spots and streaks of bloom. Any suggestions?
    Thank you

    Reply
    • Sandi Gaertner

      November 11, 2020 at 7:47 am

      I had this happen a few times when I was first trying to make this recipe. Did you read fail #2 about midway down in the post? These are the main reasons that can happen, and I mention dusting with cocoa powder to help it adhere. I hope this helps Michelle. Please keep me posted.

      Reply
      • Michelle

        November 16, 2020 at 8:55 pm

        Hi Sandi,
        I did see that, thank you. At what point do you add the powder ? I tried it the other day and got bloom in my dark chocolate. Also, what do you use to sprinkle it on? I tried a teaspoon and it didn’t work very well.

      • Sandi Gaertner

        November 18, 2020 at 5:45 pm

        Hi Michelle, I dusted it quickly right after spreading the toffee out.

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Welcome to my blog! I am so glad you are here. If you have Celiac Disease, are gluten intolerant, or have a wheat allergy, you've come to the right place. With years of extensive experience in recipe development, I am dedicated to assisting you on your gluten free journey. As a seasoned gluten free cookbook author and recipe developer, I specialize in creating easy, family-friendly recipes that rival their gluten-filled counterparts. Rest assured, my recipes undergo rigorous testing and refinement, ensuring foolproof results every time.

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