Homemade toffee is so much easier than you think, and this recipe works great in cookies, bars, and brownies, as well as a topper for hot cocoa or cheesecake.

If you are intimidated by the thought of homemade candy, know I was too the first time I made toffee! My favorite homemade toffee recipe only calls for a handful of simple ingredients and making your own toffee gives you control over the quality of those ingredients! Not only do you get to control the ingredients in your homemade toffee but you also get to choose the thickness and, therefore, hardness of your toffee! This means you can adjust your toffee for a wide variety of recipes.

You’ll likely reference this buttery toffee recipe during the holiday season and, honestly, you might use it all year round! I started making my own toffee after I agreed to compete in a toffee chocolate chip cookie baking contest and that was in the spring! (Find my winning recipe here soon!) I set out on a search for toffee bits and I wasn’t impressed with what I found in the grocery store so I decided to make my own. It was way easier than I thought and I loved that I could use organic ingredients.

When you searched for toffee recipes, you likely came across mentions of English toffee. English toffee is toffee with a layer of dark chocolate and nuts on top. You could certainly use this recipe to make the base for homemade English toffee and just add the dark chocolate and nuts on top!

Ingredients to Make Homemade Toffee

Unsalted butter
Fine sea salt
Brown sugar
White sugar

Use your favorite unsalted butter in this recipe but if you only have salted butter, don’t let that keep you from making homemade toffee! In that case, use salted butter and reduce the added salt from ¾ teaspoon to ¼ teaspoon.

I use fine sea salt here and I buy it in large containers at Costco and refill my smaller container as needed. Use your favorite salt here. Even a coarse salt should work because it will melt into the toffee mixture.

I also find my sugars at Costco – I love their large packs of organic white and organic brown sugar and I use these to refill my glass containers as needed but use your favorite sugars. I use light brown sugar but a dark brown would also work. Dark brown sugar would just create a slightly darker toffee. Dark brown sugar contains more molasses which shines through in some recipes but you likely won’t taste the difference here so use what you have!

Tools to Make Homemade Toffee

Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Heavy bottom saucepan
Heat-safe whisk
Candy thermometer (or other digital thermometer that can safely stay in the pan and registers temperatures up to 350℉)
Silicone spatula
Gallon size zip top bag
Kitchen mallet

Any standard or large baking sheet and any parchment paper will work in this recipe but the key tools needed for homemade toffee are the heavy saucepan, the thermometer, and the spatula. You do not want to use a lightweight pan because heat and sugar can be a dangerous combination when it comes to spills. A saucepan with a thick bottom will help prevent your pan from tipping or sliding around on the stove.

Easy homemade toffee parchment on baking sheet

As for the thermometer, I use a multi-use leave-in thermometer. I think it is actually intended for baking meats but works fine here. Just make sure you can secure it to your pan because both of your hands will be busy stirring and holding the pot handle. Don’t even attempt to make homemade toffee without a proper thermometer because a slight temperature variation can impact the final toffee product. Winging this recipe without a thermometer can result in a variety of final products. Best case, you end up with hard toffee when you are aiming for softer toffee (or vice versa), and, worst case, your toffee remains liquid or burns. The correct temperature will yield a crunchy toffee with a beautiful golden brown color.

Last but not least, you’ll need a silicone spatula to spread out your toffee. An off-set spatula will also work here but be sure to clean it right away because the toffee will get harder and harder to clean up as it cools.

How to Make Homemade Toffee

This is a hands-on recipe so make sure you can be at the stove the entire time the mixture is heating. And if you have any little helpers in the kitchen, the first few steps aren’t the safest for kids but they might enjoy breaking up the toffee when you get to that stage and they can always help add finished toffee bits to recipes!

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Then secure the thermometer to the saucepan.

How to Make Toffee_Ingredients in Saucepan

Add all ingredients to the saucepan and heat the mixture over medium-high heat. Start to whisk as the butter melts and continue to whisk as the mixture heats up. You do NOT need to constantly whisk but do whisk frequently and do not walk away from the stove. A lower final temperature will result in a softer toffee and a higher temperature will create a hard toffee. The hard crack stage is around 300℉ and yields a darker, harder toffee.

Advice varies on the ideal toffee temperature but I prefer a light brown, not-too-hard toffee so I shut off the heat at 275℉ and continue to stir until the toffee is the preferred color.

Easy homemade toffee finished toffee mixture in saucepan before pouring

Pour toffee mixture into the center of the baking sheet and spread out to your desired thickness using the silicone spatula or offset spatula. Work quickly here because the toffee will immediately start to set as it hits the baking sheet and starts to cool.

When the toffee sets, break it up into small enough pieces to fit into a zip-top bag and use a kitchen mallet to break it up into pieces. If you want much larger pieces, you can skip the bag and mallet and use your hands to break up the toffee.

Easy homemade toffee final shot at an angle

How to Store Homemade Toffee

Store unused toffee in a zip-top bag or airtight container.