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This holiday season, you will LOVE this easy recipe for homemade keto English toffee! Made with 5 ingredients, it’s sweet, addictive and secretly low carb and sugar free! Perfect for all your holiday parties and gifts!
Toffee crack, Christmas crack, and old fashioned English toffee candy- Whatever you call it, it’s a classic Christmas recipe that ALWAYS appears during the holidays.
I’ve been meaning to try a sugar free and low carb version for ages, but always seem to put it off until the next holiday season. This time, I was prepared and ready to give the classic English toffee a keto and low carb makeover!
What is English Toffee?
English toffee, as opposed to traditional toffee, is thicker, more buttery and often can include nuts. Traditional holiday style English toffee often has a layer of chocolate, making it the perfect dessert or portable gift.
It can sometimes be said that traditional toffee uses white sugar and English toffee uses brown. I’ve tried with both keto options (swerve and golden monk fruit) and both work.
How to make easy keto English toffee
Making English toffee is deceptively easy, provided you have a candy thermometer. Using one solves the issue of how to stop the butter and sugar from separating.
The Ingredients
- Butter. The quality of the butter you use makes a HUGE difference. I’ve used grass-fed butter and good quality traditional butter and they have been great. Some dairy-free butter will work too, but any of the cheaper ones tend to contain water and can affect the toffee.
- Granulated Sugar Substitute. Homemade brown sugar substitute should be used. I cannot vouch for any other sugar substitutes. If you can tolerate sugar, table sugar and brown sugar will work.
- Chocolate chips. Chocolate chips to top the warm toffee with and melt beautifully to form a gorgeous layer.
- Chopped nuts of choice. Optional, but I love adding a handful of finely chopped almonds or pecans for some added crunch.
The Instructions
- Line a small loaf pan or square pan with parchment paper. Place some of the optional nuts over the bottom and set aside.
- In a small saucepan, combine your butter and sugar. On low heat, heat up the mixture, stirring regularly. Once it starts to bubble, add your candy thermometer and keep an eye on it. Stir every 30 seconds, until it reaches 300F.
- Remove from the heat and whisk very, very well, to ensure the mixture doesn’t separate. Gently pour into the lined pan and let sit for a few minutes.
- After the toffee has sat for several minutes, top with chocolate chips in an even layer and cover with tin foil for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, use a rubber spatula to spread the chocolate over the top.
- Refrigerate until firm, before breaking up into pieces.
Dietary Substitutions
- Paleo English Toffee. Be sure to use good quality. grass-fed butter and refined sugar free chocolate chips on top.
- Vegan English Toffee. Use dairy-free butter and dairy-free chocolate chips on top.
How long can you keep homemade toffee?
- To store. Store English toffee in a sealable container. They will keep fresh for at least a week. You can also refrigerate them, and they will keep for at least a month.
- To freeze. You can freeze English toffee, but the texture will not be the best once thawed. Wrap toffee in parchment paper and place it in a ziplock bag.
More healthy holiday dessert recipes
- Walnut Brownies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Almond Butter Cookies
- White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Pecan Pie Bars
- Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars
Tools to make the best easy English Toffee recipe
- Candy Thermometer. A MUST for ensuring perfect toffee, without the fear of it burning or separating!
- Non-stick saucepan. A good quality saucepan ensures even heating throughout.
English Toffee {Keto, Vegan, Paleo}
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1/2 cup allulose or brown sugar
- 1 cup keto chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup raw almonds chopped finely
Instructions
- Line a small loaf pan or square pan with parchment paper and spread out the chopped almonds. and set aside.
- In a small saucepan, combine your butter and sugar substitute. On low heat, heat up until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Stir regularly. Once the mixture begins to bubble, add your candy thermometer into the center of the mixture. Continue to stir every 30 seconds, until the thermometer reaches 300F (hard crack). Remove from the heat.
- Once you have removed from the heat, stir continuously to ensure the butter and sugar doesn't separate. Pour into the lined pan and let sit for several minutes.
- After several minutes, top with chocolate chips, before covering with tin foil. Let sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, use a rubber spatula to spread out the toffee in an even layer.
- Refrigerate until firm. Once firm, break apart into pieces.
Notes
- To store. Store English toffee in a sealable container. They will keep fresh for at least a week. You can also refrigerate them, and they will keep for at least a month.
- To freeze. You can freeze English toffee, but the texture will not be the best once thawed. Wrap toffee in parchment paper and place it in a ziplock bag.
FYI Allulose is not government approved in Canada or the UK and therefore is not available.
The recipe didn’t work for me. I made a double batch and poured it in a half baking sheet to make sure it wasn’t going to be too thick. I even brought the temperature to over 300 (almost 310) degrees but it still is too soft and not crunchy. Any suggestions? Is it best to do to one small batch at a time instead?
Hi Jennifer- that is odd- it shouldn’t go over that temp. What sweetener did you use?
I’m assuming the allulose is the granulated form but I just wanted to clarify; mainly b/c I have the liquid type but not the granulated form. Thank you!
Yes, granulated!
Can I use Stevia or Monkfruit instead of allulose? If so, how would I adjust the amount? Thank you!
Neither of those will work properly 🙂
Thank you. You are correct. I tried with Stevia and it just didn’t work but I ordered some Allulose and made it earlier and just tasted it. It turned out great. Thank you!!
This was amazing!!!
Super easy and delicious! Thank you!!
This was absolutely amazing! Such a foolproof recipe, already made 4 batches.
I followed recipe but had to drain off half the butter. Once I did that, it set up nicely and made a nice chewy toffee.
But is the recipe correct? I cup butter and half a cup of allulose? Should they be equal amounts?
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks!
I have made this 3 times. The first time, it turned out wonderful. The second 2 times, the toffee didn’t set firm. What on earth could it be? I made it the same way every time.
I’ve made this excellent recipe with Allulose as per instructions before, but we can no longer buy Allulose in Canada. Have you tried it with other sweetners, i.e. monkfruit or stevia?
Would be interested in comments or suggestions.
Thank You!
I was also curious about monkfruit sweetener. Has anyone tried it?
Could I use organic coconut sugar in this recipe?
Yes absolutely!
I made this and it was amazing. I put them in silicone bar shaped candy molds (which was pretty easy). The only comment/question I have is I found the toffee to be a little too sweet… is there any way to back off the sweetness without compromising the consistency? I used your brown sugar recipe ( doubled it and made it dark with 1 cup eyrithritol,1 cup allulose, 4 Tbsp blackstrap molasses) is there something you can suggest to help me? I love your recipes. They are easy to follow and not a lot of hard to get ingredients. I’m amassing quite a keto pantry! I did find a cool new toy… Amazon has a candy thermometer in a silicone spatula that rocks this processs. You might want to link it in your video. So helpful!
An excellent and well explained recipe. Toffee can be tricky to make. A candy thermometer is essential and I find 300 deg on a low flame is perfect, stirring constantly and I removed from heat by 310 while the mixture was turning that rich toffee color. All good!
Best dessert ever, low carb perfection.