This Salted Soft Butter Toffee is a delicious treat that's the perfect combination of sweet and salt, with a hint of licorice. Although it tastes like butter toffee, it has the texture of caramels.
Butter Toffee is a candy that's a staple during the holiday season. This buttery soft toffee recipe is a great edible gift to give on its own or add some of this delicious sweet treat to your baking/treat trays. If you've never made candy, this is a good one to start with.
🍒Reader Review
"This was so simple to make and came out perfectly! They are delicious and the perfect addition to the Christmas boxes and dessert tray! They have a really nice, soft texture and smooth buttery flavour. I didn’t have star anise, so substituted with a few whole cloves. Thanks for the recipe, Terri!!" ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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I was given a variation of this recipe by a former colleague. I made some changes to it and this is the delicious result. It's seriously the best butter toffee you'll ever try!
🥘Ingredient Notes
For this salted butter toffee, you'll need a few simple ingredients:
- Light corn syrup. Corn syrup prevents sugar from crystallizing and forming hard lumps.
- Salted butter. Although I usually use unsalted butter, in this case, you'll want to use salted. This recipe needs that extra salt. If you use unsalted butter, add ¼ teaspoon of table salt to the recipe.
- Star anise. Star anise is what gives this soft toffee recipe its delicious hint of licorice flavor!
- Coarse salt (not shown). I like to use coarse salt because it balances the sweet
*See recipe card for quantities.
📖Variations & Substitutions
- Vanilla - you can use a vanilla bean instead (you will remove it when you remove the star anise)
- Milk - you can use 2% or whole milk instead
- Star anise- you don't have to use this, but you won't get that hint of licorice (and it's delicious)! Or you could use aniseed (anise seed), as the flavor is similar. They will just be a little more challenging to remove from the mixture.
- Butter - you can use unsalted butter and add ¼ teaspoon of salt
- Coarse salt -you can use sea salt or kosher salt
- Topping- you could also drizzle melted chocolate over the toffee pieces
🔪How to Make Soft Butter Toffee
Prep: Line a 9X5 loaf pan with parchment paper.
In a saucepan, combine icing sugar, milk, corn syrup, vanilla extract, and star anise.
Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove star anise.
Gradually combine butter.
Cook, stirring frequently over medium heat until temperature reaches 230 degrees f (110 c) with a candy thermometer or instant-read thermometer.
Pour the toffee mixture into a parchment lined loaf pan and cool at room temperature for at least 2 hours before cutting.
*Do NOT use wax paper (it will stick) or spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray, as I did this with the first batch. It was almost impossible to remove.
Lift the parchment paper out of the pan, peel it off the soft toffee, and discard.
Trim the uneven edges and cut into 18 pieces. Sprinkle with coarse salt (I use sea salt).
Expert Tips
- Reaching the right temperature: It's critical that this mixture reach the right temperature of 230 degrees f (110 c) for the candy to set. Test the temperature with a candy thermometer or better yet an instant-read thermometer. (these thermometers can be used for everything from bread making to grilled meat). Be patient, as it will seem like it's taking forever at one point.
- Use parchment paper to line the pan. Do NOT use wax paper (it will stick) and do not spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray. I tried this in the past and did this in the past and it is almost impossible to remove.
- Refrigerate the toffee. Although these should be cooled at room temperature, they need to be stored in the fridge. If not refrigerated for 30 minutes or more, these candies tend to swell. They still taste the same, but don't look as nice.
🥗What to Serve with Soft Toffee
If you want to put together the ultimate holiday platter, I recommend plating this soft toffee with Whipped Shortbread Cookies, Lime Christmas Squares, Gingerbread Snowballs, Christmas Almond Pinwheel Cookies, Terry's Chocolate Orange Cookies, Sugar Cookie Fudge, Butter Tarts, and Gingerbread Yule Log Cookies!
🌡️Storage
Store this homemade butter toffee in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. They keep their shape better if they are kept refrigerated. I found, that if they are not refrigerated, they will swell.
This homemade toffee recipe can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
👪 Serving Size
This soft caramel toffee recipe makes 18 servings. However, you can cut the pieces smaller (into 24 pieces) if you desire. You can also half, double, or triple the recipe by clicking on the serving number and selecting the number of servings you'd like. The ingredient quantities will automatically adjust. You will just need additional loaf pans.
❔ Recipe FAQ's
Yes, it will eventually go bad. Homemade butter toffee has a shorter shelf life than store-bought and is best consumed within 1-2 weeks.
The difference between toffee and caramels is both the ingredients and temperature, although the cooking process is the same. Caramels are made with white granulated sugar and cooked at a higher temperature (340 degrees Fahrenheit,) whereas toffee is generally made with butter and brown sugar and cooked to 295 - 309 degrees Fahrenheit. However, this delicious toffee is made with powdered sugar and only cooked to 230 degrees F, keeping it soft and yummy!
So, if you're looking for a sweet treat you'll love this buttery toffee recipe! And for more candy recipes, see below the recipe card.
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📋 Salted Soft Butter Toffee Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups powdered sugar/icing sugar/confectioners sugar
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ cup light corn syrup
- 3 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup salted butter
- 4-5 star anise
Garnish
- coarse salt
Instructions
- Prep: Line a 9X5 loaf pan with parchment paper.
- In a saucepan, combine powdered sugar/icing sugar, milk, corn syrup, vanilla extract and star anise.
- Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring with a wooden spoon.
- Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Remove star anise with a slotted spoon.
- Gradually stir in butter.
- Cook, stirring frequently over medium heat until temperature reaches 230 degrees f (110 c) with candy thermometer or instant read thermometer.
- Pour hot toffee into prepared pan and cool at room temperature for at least 2 hours before cutting.
- Trim the uneven edges and cut into 18 pieces. Sprinkle with coarse salt (I use sea salt).
- Store in the fridge in an airtight container. Place in mini muffin cups in a cookie tin, if giving as an edible gift.
Notes
- Reaching the right temperature: It's critical that this mixture reach the right temperature of 230 degrees f (110 c) for the candy to set. Test the temperature with a candy thermometer or better yet an instant-read thermometer. (these thermometers can be used for everything from bread making to grilled meat). Be patient, as it will seem like it's taking forever at one point.
- Use parchment paper to line the pan. Do NOT use wax paper (it will stick) and do not spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray. I tried this in the past and did this in the past and it is almost impossible to remove.
- Refrigerate the toffee. Although these should be cooled at room temperature, they need to be store in the fridge. If not refrigerated for 30 minutes or more, these candies tend to swell. They still taste the same, but don't look as nice.
- Vanilla - you can use a vanilla bean instead (you will remove it when you remove the star anise)
- Milk - you can use 2% or whole milk instead
- Star anise- you don't have to use this, but you won't get that hint of licorice (and it's delicious)!
- Butter - you can use unsalted butter and add ¼ teaspoon of salt
- Coarse salt -you can use sea salt or kosher salt
Crystal
This was so simple to make and came out perfectly! They are delicious and the perfect addition to the Christmas boxes and dessert tray! They have a really nice, soft texture and smooth buttery flavour. I didn’t have star anise, so substituted with a few whole cloves. Thanks for the recipe, Terri!
Terri Gilson
Hi Crystal,
I'm so glad to hear it worked well and you loved it. The clove substitution is a great idea!
Merry Christmas 🙂
Terri