anyone made toffee?

[telbert]

I should have posted this 20 minutes ago before I started . Ive just melted white sugar ,Muscovado sugar and butter in a pan ,mixed well together and then poured into a lined tray which is now in the fridge.
Have I made toffee or just a tray full of sweet,buttery sludge? Any tips on further toffee making episodes(assuming I survive testing this batch)?

 

[Treacle Toes]

What does google say?

 

[weepiper]

You've got to boil it, not just melt it and mix it together. Or it won't set.

 

[telbert]

What does google say?

Dunno .I just seemed to remember i knew how to make toffee for a short while so I did. Its not until after that I realise I aint got a fucking clue and have never made it before.

 

[Treacle Toes]

Dunno .I just seemed to remember i knew how to make toffee for a short while so I did. Its not until after that I realise I aint got a fucking clue and have never made it before.

How do you make English toffee?
Toffee is a confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses (creating inverted sugar) along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of 149 to 154 °C (300 to 310 °F).

Almost right then.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

You've got to boil it, not just melt it and mix it together. Or it won't set.

Yeah, I remember boiling it last time I made it, then tipping it into a greased tin. If memory serves, the tin needs to be well-larded up or its impossible to get the toffee our once it's set.

 

[telbert]

Just tasted and was shit.Not set and really grainy so I threw it back in the pan and BOILLED IT instead of warming it up a bit. It poured into the tray a lot easier the second time around,completely runny like a sauce.I will taste again when set and report back.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I thought you just mixed tea and coffee together

 

[Spymaster]

Doesn't toffee have milk or cream in it?

 

[campanula]

Ideally, you need a sugar thermometer...but there are ways of testing the level of stickiness without a thermometer. Fill a jug of cold (really cold) water, drop a teaspoon of toffee in the water. It will coagulate into a sticky ball...and depending on how hot the mix was, it will set to either a soft ball (at around 120C) or a brittle crack at around 160C and various stages of chewiness inbetween. Any hotter, and it will start to burn (caramelise).
A thermometer is brilliant for all preserve and jam making, as well as home-made fudges, boiled sweets, fondants and toffees. I have a (well used) one.

 

[campanula]

Just tasted and was shit.Not set and really grainy so I threw it back in the pan and BOILLED IT instead of warming it up a bit. It poured into the tray a lot easier the second time around,completely runny like a sauce.I will taste again when set and report back.

The graininess was the sugar, not fully dissolving. Whatever you have now will be fine - but there is no way of guessing how chewy it will turn out. I make shitloads of praline (same principle) which keeps for weeks and is lovely to sprinkle on icecream or porridge (although I would stab my eyes out before eating porridge myself).

 

[peterkro]

The graininess was the sugar, not fully dissolving. Whatever you have now will be fine - but there is no way of guessing how chewy it will turn out. I make shitloads of praline (same principle) which keeps for weeks and is lovely to sprinkle on icecream or porridge (although I would stab my eyes out before eating porridge myself).

Toffee was the first thing I learned to make (from my elder sisters) I then moved on to Coconut ice, we was well sophisticated back in the fifties.

 

[telbert]

Just had a bit of it.All the graininess has gone and its brittle like glass.Tastes very,very much like toffee apple toffee. Cant see my teeth being in any good shape come the weekend. May do some toffee pineapple things next (like you get from the Chinese). Thanks for the advice.

 

[mrs quoad]

Soft ball test.

Drop a drop into cold water.

Lift out.

See how it is.

If it’s a soft ball, fudge.

If a firm ball, toffiffee.

If neither, KEEP BOILING

 

[campanula]

Just had a bit of it.All the graininess has gone and its brittle like glass.Tastes very,very much like toffee apple toffee. Cant see my teeth being in any good shape come the weekend. May do some toffee pineapple things next (like you get from the Chinese). Thanks for the advice.

Yep - that is the boiling. If you make it again, you can do the cold water test (or a drop on a saucer which has been prechilled in the freezer) - the lower the temperature, the softer the set.

Toffee was the first thing I learned to make (from my elder sisters) I then moved on to Coconut ice, we was well sophisticated back in the fifties.

Me too. Home made sweet making is fun - especially if you get into the realms of sugar pulling and nougat. Sadly, my teeth (what remains of them) are testament to a lifelong fondness for sweets (and drugs)...and I too, have also eaten my share of slightly sweaty peppermint creams and misshapen truffles made by grubby 6 year old hands.

 

[peterkro]

Yep - that is the boiling. If you make it again, you can do the cold water test (or a drop on a saucer which has been prechilled in the freezer) - the lower the temperature, the softer the set.



Me too. Home made sweet making is fun - especially if you get into the realms of sugar pulling and nougat. Sadly, my teeth (what remains of them) are testament to a lifelong fondness for sweets (and drugs)...and I too, have also eaten my share of slightly sweaty peppermint creams and misshapen truffles made by grubby 6 year old hands.

Yes the teeth are rapidly falling apart I'd love to blame the childhood sweets but honestly the Methedrine years did the damage.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Doesn't toffee have milk or cream in it?

Fudge does I seem to recall - but toffee is basically pure sugar.

Cinder toffee is the best one to make, the way the mixture inflates like the Blob when you add the bicarb.

 

[UrbaneFox]

We used to make it when I was a kid. Had to drop a bit on to a small plate, then after a short wait, push it. If it didn't wrinkle you had to keep on cooking it.

I suppose these new fangled "thermometers" have replaced it and taken all the fun / burned fingertips out of it.

 

[campanula]

We used to make it when I was a kid. Had to drop a bit on to a small plate, then after a short wait, push it. If it didn't wrinkle you had to keep on cooking it.

I suppose these new fangled "thermometers" have replaced it and taken all the fun / burned fingertips out of it.

Nah, I still use the 'dripping off a wooden spoon' test for jam and jelly - more reliable than trusting to the thermometer - which is just a thermometer and makes no allowance for arcane variables such as air pressure, humidity, ingredients and so so. I use mine most of all in water baths for sterilising jars and bottles.