What does adding butter to toffee do?
Some recipes for toffee call for butter, some don't. I'd like to know please what adding butter does, and if I do add butter, will I still be able to make the stickjaw type toffee? Thanks in advance.
Best Answer
Butter largely acts to prevent the crystallization of sugar in toffee. This leaves the toffee smooth and breakable.
Fats in candy serve a similar purpose. Fatty ingredients such as butter help interfere with crystallization—again, by getting in the way of the sucrose molecules that are trying to lock together into crystals. Toffee owes its smooth texture and easy breakability to an absence of sugar crystals, thanks to a large amount of butter in the mix. There's more about the role of ingredients in candies here.
You should still be able to make stickjaw (or, if not authentic stickjaw, at least a more sticky) toffee. The consistency of toffee has more to do with the temperature you bring the toffee to while cooking. Here's a chart detailing the various stages of candy temperatures. For a sticky toffee you'd most likely want to bring your toffee to the soft-crack stage.
Here is a recipe for authentic, old-fashioned, stickjaw toffee but without butter.
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Quick Answer about "What does adding butter to toffee do?"
Butter is added in the final stages to add flavor and smoothness and inhibit large crystal formation. Use unsalted butter so you can add a small amount of salt (¼ teaspoon per stick of butter) to the sugar/liquid mixture. Salt tends to stabilize the mixture and keep it from foaming as much.What does butter do in toffee?
Larger amounts of butter or cream can make chewier, softer toffees that are like caramels, while toffee cooked to a higher temperature becomes brittle but is still chewy to eat. The Maillard reaction, which is caused by heating the dairy and sugar together, is what gives toffee its toasty flavour.What makes toffee chewy?
Toffee gets chewy when there is too much moisture in it. Undercooking toffee can leave it moist and chewy, while recipes that include a lot of dairy also make chewy toffee.What makes toffee grainy?
Crystallization occurs when you heat the toffee too quickly and the sugar crystallizes on the side of the pot and gets mixed back into the toffee. That's what creates a grainy texture. To prevent crystallization, take care to completely dissolve all the sugar before you bring the mixture to a boil.How do you make toffee not sticky?
Your toffee is getting sticky because it isn't coated in chocolate to protect it from the moisture in the air. If you want to make uncoated toffee pieces and store them, then you need to put it in an air-tight container with some dessicant.Cannabutter Toffee
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