History of English Toffee - Cache Toffee Collection (2024)

What is English toffee, exactly? What makes it so unique compared to other varieties? Here’s what you need to know about the history of this delicious and quintessentially British candy.

What Is Toffee?

Before we discuss what makes English toffee stand out compared to other varieties, let’s start with the basics: toffee is a relatively simple hard candy constructed from butter and some sort of sugar. While that may sound easy, toffee is temperamental and can be affected by temperature, altitude, and humidity, to name a few.Toffee is delicious on its own, but most artisanal toffee recipes include wrappings of chocolate, nuts, and a host of other ingredients.

Understanding English Toffee History

Now, let’s dive into the past to understand the history behind this classic candy. Toffee didn’t appear in dictionaries until after 1825, making it something of a newcomer to the world of candy.Most food historians agree that the sweet treat likely originated in Wales and then rose to prominence across Britain and Europe where supplies of butter and eventually imported sugar were plentiful. English toffee maintains its extreme popularity due to its unique flavor profile and regional variations.

What Makes English Toffee Special?

Technically speaking, there are two main types of toffee that we Americans consume. One, which sometimes gets misnamed as “English toffee,” is actually called “buttercrunch.” The other is the genuine sort of English toffee.What’s the main difference between the two? What gives real English toffee its unique flavor? As you might expect, it’s a difference of ingredients.Buttercrunch, the Americanized version of toffee, uses granulated white sugar or high fructose corn syrup in its creation. Americanized toffee may include nuts, while a completely traditional British toffee will not. On the other hand, English toffee uses pure cane sugar, brown sugar, or molasses as its sweet base and always involves chocolate.

History of English Toffee - Cache Toffee Collection (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between English toffee and regular toffee? ›

Americanized toffee may include nuts, while a completely traditional British toffee will not. On the other hand, English toffee uses pure cane sugar, brown sugar, or molasses as its sweet base and always involves chocolate.

What is toffee called in England? ›

Although named English toffee, it bears little resemblance to the wide range of confectionery known as toffee currently available in the United Kingdom. However, one can still find this product in the UK under the name "butter crunch". Conversely, in Italy they are known as "mou candies".

What's the difference between Buttercrunch and toffee? ›

What's the difference? Primarily, the difference rests in the ingredients. Toffee in Britain is made with brown sugar, whereas buttercrunch is made with white granulated sugar. The differences do not stop there, however, since the delectable buttercrunch is usually made with a nice variety of nuts and other flavorings.

Which is the world's number one toffee? ›

Lotte Coffy Bite Toffee

This is the best toffee in the world that has a rich flavor of coffee. Its creamy texture makes it mouthwatering to all of us. This brand also manufactures Caramilk, Lotte Eclairs, Lacto Kind, Spout gums, and Booproo.

Should English toffee be refrigerated? ›

+ What is the shelf life? Three months unopened, if stored in a cool dry place. + Can it be refrigerated? Yes, but it needs to be set out of the refrigerator to bring to room temperature before serving.

Why add baking soda to toffee? ›

In cooking brittle, the baking soda is added right before the candy is poured, while toffee is cooked longer after the soda is added. This lets much of the carbon dioxide escape, leaving the toffee less brittle. In the end, they are cooked in much the same way, but with a few key differences.

What do Americans call toffee? ›

Taffy is considered an earlier rendition of the word toffee, but the word taffy continued to be used in America while toffee was used in Great Britain.

What is the American word for toffee? ›

synonyms: brittle, toffy. types: peanut brittle. brittle containing peanuts. type of: candy, confect. a rich sweet made of flavored sugar and often combined with fruit or nuts.

What is toffee in British slang? ›

If you say that someone cannot do something for toffee, you mean that they are extremely bad at it: He can't paint for toffee!

Do you stir toffee constantly? ›

It's important while the toffee cooks to only stir it occasionally. Constant stirring can cause the toffee to crystallize and separate.

Why is my toffee chewy instead of crunchy? ›

Low and slow

Simmering the syrup for English toffee to the requisite 300°F temperature can (and should) be a slow process — up to 20 minutes or so. Don't hurry this gradual transformation; syrup that doesn't reach 300°F, or close to it, will make candy with timid flavor and chewy (not crunchy) texture.

Is butterscotch the same as toffee? ›

Toffee vs Butterscotch

While butterscotch is cooked to a soft-crack stage, toffee is produced by allowing that same butter and brown sugar mixture to reach the hard-crack stage. Butterscotch tends to be chewy and pliable; toffee is brittle and more breakable.

What is the most sold candy in the world? ›

According to this article, Snickers is the best selling candy bar in the world. What is the top selling candy bar? Reese's, with 2.6 billion in sales worldwide of their peanut butter cups. Followed by M&Ms , with $2.3 billion in worldwide sales.

What is America's #1 candy? ›

Snickers is the top-selling candy bar in the United States and is produced by Mars, Inc. This classic chocolate bar is made with nougat, caramel, and peanuts, and it has been a favourite among Americans since its introduction in 1930. M&M's are small, candy-coated chocolates that are produced by Mars, Inc.

Is toffee a junk food? ›

Verdict: Junk. Intense Dark Toffee Interlude (55% cacao) also fits into category E. A whole bar (3.5 oz.) contains 50% of one's daily allowance for fat, almost 100% of saturated fat and over 12 teaspoons of sugar.

What is the difference between toffee UK and US? ›

English toffee and American toffee diverged with the preferred use of sugar type. English toffee is made with brown sugar, while American-style toffee, known as buttercrunch is made with white table sugar (granulated sugar). Buttercrunch is typically dusted with crushed almonds or other nuts.

What makes English toffee separate? ›

If the butterfat separates out then usually this is due to the mixture being either heated or cooled too quickly, which "shocks" the mixture and causes the fat to separate out.

Is English toffee hard or soft? ›

Homemade English Toffee is a sweet and addicting treat made with a hard candy layer topped with chocolate and chopped pecans for a nutty crunch.

What flavor is English toffee? ›

Toffee is often combined with nuts such as almonds and semi-sweet chocolate to create classic English toffee. This is done by spreading the hot toffee out flat over a sheet pan and topping it with semi-sweet chocolate chips.

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