English Butter Toffee

One of the Hubster’s very favorite candies in the world is toffee. He will never turn down good toffee. When we were at Disney last fall, he used a lot of his snack credits for the English butter toffee that they sell all around the parks. He got so many, we had extra to bring home.

Since Veteran’s Day was Wednesday, and he hasn’t gotten to have any good toffee in a long time, I decided that I’d whip up a batch for my favorite soldier, as a thank you for his hard work and dedication to the service, as well as his family. And since he liked the toffee at Disney so darned much, why not try to replicate it?

🙂

I decided when I made this candy that I wanted it in neat, cute squares…like they sell at Disney. Usually when I make toffees and barks, I just let them cool and break them all willy nilly. This time, though, I poured my hot toffee into my prepared pan and let it cool for about five minutes. Then, I used my sharp paring knife and just gently ran it through, dividing the candy into even squares. I had to repeat each line a few times as the candy cooled, because it will melt back together again. But eventually, it cools enough to hold to score marks.

Once the toffee was cooled, it broke in nice, neat little squares – just what I wanted.

For the chocolate coating, i kept things über simple, and just melted chocolate chips, but you can certainly invest in a higher quality chocolate if you want to.

When covering the candy, you can dip just one side in the chocolate, if you like, or you can coat each piece completely, which is what I did.

Next, I rolled each of my toffee squares in chopped almonds. Again, you can just put almonds on one side, cover the candy entirely, or skip the nuts altogether. I was going for Disney-style, though, so each of my toffee squares got a nice covering of almonds.

In the end, I think we prefer almonds on one side only, but they are certainly pretty completely covered, and they’re easier to handle, since you don’t have to touch the chocolate directly.

Once all the squares are covered and coated and as chocolaty and nutty as you wish, line them up on a bit of parchment paper to set completely before serving.

Hubs was super surprised to receive his favorite candy, and I had fun emulating one of our favorite Disney treats. I think they turned out quite close to the real thing, and they’re much easier to make than you’d expect. Cooking the toffee only takes 1- to 15 minutes, depending on your stove, and the rest of the work is simply coating them in goodies after they cool. I hope you’ll give them a try this holiday season. They make a great gift, packaged in a  pretty tin or box, and they’re excellent on any holiday dessert table.

Enjoy!