Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan on Medium heat.  We use Salted Sweet Cream butter for Homemade English Toffee.  You can use margarine if you prefer but the Toffee will taste a little bit differently.
2. Add the sugar to the melted butter and stir until it is fully incorporated with the butter.
3. Bring the mixture up to a boil while continuously stirring so you don’t burn the candy mixture.  The good news is that you don’t need a candy thermometer to make this toffee.  You just need to cook the sugar and butter mixture until it turns the color of peanut butter.  It should take about 10-15 minutes depending on your stove.  First, the candy mixture will reach a boil.  We keep the burner on Medium. Just hot enough for a boil.  If you have the burner too high, you can burn the mixture.  Next, the mixture will start thickening up. About halfway through the cooking process, the mixture will start darkening up.  Now is a good time to get out a can of peanut butter.  When it is ready, the mixture will be a medium tan color very similar to peanut butter.  Stop stirring and take the candy off the heat.
4. Distribute the chopped nuts evenly on a large cookie sheet.  You do not need to prepare the cookie sheet in any way. There is plenty of butter in the candy mixture, it will not stick to the pan once it is cooled. Both Pecans and Walnuts are good choices.
5. Immediately pour the candy mixture into the cookie sheet with the nuts.  Try to pour it evenly over the whole cookie sheet. The candy mixture doesn’t have to go all the way to the edges.  Let it set up for approximately 5 minutes.
6. Sprinkle the semi-sweet chocolate chips onto the top of the still-hot candy.  The chocolate chips will start to melt. Wait until the chocolate chips are mostly melted and then use a knife or an offset spatula to spread the chocolate over the toffee mixture.
7. If you like nuts, you can also sprinkle some finely chopped nuts on top of the melted chocolate. Or you can decorate the Toffee with Christmas sprinkles.
8. Let the Homemade English Toffee cool and harden for a couple of hours and then you can break it up into pieces.  Use the tip of a knife to start breaking up the candy into pieces. The pieces don’t have to be uniform.  In fact, it looks best on a plate when they are not.