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English Toffee Sauce

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Luxuriously rich with a deep caramelized flavor, this English Toffee Sauce recipe is super easy to make and your taste buds will thank you over and over again!

toffee sauce recipe caramel english british

Few things are as irresistible as an oozing toffee sauce.  Luxuriously rich with deep caramelized flavor, if you can resist eating this with a spoon or your fingers you will thoroughly enjoy it served over your desserts.

Drizzle this English toffee sauce over your cakes, ice cream, fresh fruit, add it to your fruit crumbles and crisps, or a dollop to your waffles or anything else your heart desires!

toffee sauce recipe caramel english british

Why Is My Toffee Sauce Grainy?

When sugar crystals form on the sides of the pan before they’re completely dissolved they can crystalize and fall back into the toffee mixture causing it to be grainy.  To prevent this be sure the sugar is dissolved before increase the temperature to a low simmer and then avoid stirring as much as possible until the toffee sauce begins to turn color.

Let’s get started!

Place the heavy cream, brown sugar, salt and butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat and let the brown sugar dissolve completely, stirring as little as possible to avoid the sugar granules from splashing up the sides of the pan (this will result in a grainy toffee sauce).  Once it’s dissolved increase the temperature to medium high.

Avoid stirring too much during the initial stages until the sauce begins to turn color.  Increase the frequency of stirring as the sauce gets browner to prevent burning.  Continue until the sauce is thickened and a dark amber.

How dark and how thick you let it get is a matter of personal preference.   The darker and thicker, the deeper the flavor.  I like it dark and thick.  When I scrape the bottom of the pan with a spoon and a trail is left behind, that’s the thickness I prefer.  But you can stop simmering earlier than this if you prefer a thinner and lighter sauce.

Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Let it cool a few minutes and serve warm or let it cool completely and store the English Toffee Sauce in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a month.  If it’s too thick, reheat it with a little heavy cream and/or butter.

Enjoy!

toffee sauce recipe caramel english british

English Sticky Toffee Sauce

Luxuriously rich with a deep caramelized flavor, drizzle this English toffee sauce over your cakes, ice cream, fresh fruit, add it to your fruit crumbles and crisps, or a dollop to your waffles or anything else your heart desires!
5 from 19 votes
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course condiment, Dessert
Cuisine english

Ingredients
 
 

Instructions
 

  • Place the heavy cream, brown sugar, salt and butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat and let the brown sugar dissolve completely, stirring as little as possible to avoid the sugar granules from splashing up the sides of the pan (this will result in a grainy toffee sauce).  Once it's dissolved increase the temperature to medium high. 
    Avoid stirring too much during the initial stages until the sauce begins to turn color.  Increase the frequency of stirring as the sauce gets browner to prevent burning.  Continue until the sauce is thickened and a dark amber. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
    If the sauce thickens too much or if leftovers are too thick, add a little extra butter and/or heavy cream and reheat.  
  • Makes about 1 3/4 cups.  Store in the refrigerator for up to a month.
Keyword Toffee Sauce
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
kimberly killebrew the daring gourmet

Hi, I’m Kimberly Killebrew and welcome to Daring Gourmet where you'll find delicious originals, revitalized classics, and simply downright good eats from around the world! Originally from Germany, later raised in England, world-traveled, and now living in the U.S., from my globally-influenced kitchen I invite you to tour the world through your taste buds!

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Recipe Rating




5 from 19 votes (10 ratings without comment)

66 Comments

  1. I followed your recipe for the date sponge cake and the toffee sauce, to the letter. I have a new favorite dessert, and so does my husband! We are both chefs, and appreciate a well written recipe. You’re fabulous, and we both thank you!!!!

  2. I was trying to cook it long enough that i had the trail as in the photo but it never did get that thick and actually started to get thinner and ended up with a dark caramel separated from the liquid
    Any body got any thoughs of what might i have done wrong
    The sauce pan i was using was on the smaller side

  3. I subbed out 2% milk for cream and it was a disaster. Butter and sugar remained separate, just had a layer of butter floating over a layer of liquid sugar. Don’t use milk!

  4. Your blog is beautiful and I have enjoyed every word and photo. I cannot wait to prepare several of your wonderful recipes.

    Would you consider reducing the amount of blank space on your print recipes? This would cut down on the amount of paper we have to use for each recipe. IE:The information next to the photo could be reduced to 2 lines at most and positioned to the left of the photo without compromising your very clear and concise recipe format. That way most recipes would fit on both sides of just 1 page of paper. Recipes covering over two sides of the paper tend to clutter up the files and I try not to waste paper and ink.

    Love your site. Maggie

    1. Hi Maggie, that is so kind of you, I really appreciate the compliment, thank you very much :) That’s a very good point about the blank spaces, thank you for the suggestion. The recipe box is structured by a software program I subscribe to and I’m not sure how much flexibility there is with the format. I’ve just sent an email to the software developer with the question you raised to see if there’s anything they can do to make improvements. If there is I will definitely request the changes. Thanks again. Warm regards, Kimberly

  5. Hi Lauren,I followed your recipe by every step,at the end it seems very runny is this normal?I hope so 😊 it tastes devine.i made a spiced apple bundt cake for Christmas day and hope this will compliment it beautifully

  6. When do I add the Vanilla extract? I am assuming after the caramel sauce has finished cooking and stir it in.

  7. Hello! As I’m English, please can you tell me the English equivalent of ‘cups’ – not used here (well not by me anyway!). Pounds/ounces or grammes would be helpful.
    Thankyou !

  8. I only wanted a single serving to go with bread pudding+ice cream so I scaled it down by using 6 grams of brown sugar, 4 grams of butter and about 8 ml of heavy cream. It took very little cooking on a rather low heat and came out really tasty. Thanks!

  9. Wow just tried this toffee sauce to go with my toffee cake it’s fantastic will definitely be making it again 😍

  10. This came out great for me, but after refrigerating it I can’t get it to soften back up again without the butter separating out. Any ideas how to get it back?

  11. Well that was an epic fail! I don’t know what I did wrong but the only thing I can think is that I used a nonstick saucepan and my stick of butter had salt. But I was going to add extra salt anyway, so I didn’t think that mattered. One more thing that did occur to me when I ended up with some very chewy Carmel stuff, is that I think I live where we are at high altitude. So maybe that’s it. It’s Albuquerque. Not sure how high but it’s definitely higher than the Midwest. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

    1. Hi Lauren

      I had the same thing happen to me. I think I overcooked it though. Not sure if my heat was too high or I left it on too long, but I was able to save it by returning it to a low heat until soft, adding some more cream and blitzing it with an emersion blender. (Be careful with the blitzing. I gave myself a nasty burn with spatter.)
      Surprisingly, I did not end up with a grainy texture.

      I know it’s been a year since your post, but maybe someone else having the same problem can benefit from this.