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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.
Ten Stars Amazing
Thanks for the recipe! The taste is great but I wish I would have made it in a larger pan so it would be thinner. I knew a loaf pan was too small so I used a 6×10 Pyrex dish that I have. It was still thicker than I would have liked. I was hoping for more of a Heath bar texture but the toffee is softer than that. Next time I’ll cook it a little longer and use a larger pan. We’ll definitely eat this batch, though, because it tastes delicious!
Awesome healthy sweets!! Thank you!
Amazing work, just everything, I can’t wait for a new one 👏👏👏👏👏
This is the favorite treat at our house. Tastes so decadent but no guilt. Actually, every recipe I’ve tried of yours, we just love! Thank you so much, you’re very talented. You should post these on Allrecipes. Com, you’d gather a huge following there!
Just made these and I’m afraid I’ll eat the whole batch before Christmas! So good!
Any thoughts on using coconut sugar for this?
Works well!
This is the best and is a family favorite. I do use pecans because we like them a bit better. My favorite easy candy recipe. Thank you.
Best keto desert ever. I’ve tried several. I used some keto chocolate with nuts crushed up on top for the chocolate and almonds crushed up in the toffee.
A+++ definitely worth a try. What have you got to loose!
This tastes like the real deal. Beautiful toffee with a chocolate topping. Love it!
This is was SO YUMMY! Perfect to soothe that sweet tooth craving! Tastes just like regular toffee!! Plus it took no time at all.
This was the best keto english toffee ever!
Hey, is the center suppose to be soft? And will harden after toasting individual slices?
I made this exactly according to recipe and it was incredible!!!
Hi, I haven’t made this yet but really want to . I’m in England and I can’t buy monk fruit sweetener here. Can I use a different sweetener?
Allulose!!