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My success with making vegan salt caramels inspired me to venture further into candy making. My next adventure: toffee. It turns out toffee is much simpler than soft caramels. Essentially, it is equal parts of sugar and butter caramelized to the proper stage. I started with this recipe and simply substituted Earth Balance and omitted the salt (because of the salt content of the Earth Balance). It turned out well, although I may have taken this first batch a little too dark. I elected to make a naked toffee as I had plans to use it as a garnish or in other dishes (stay tuned!). If you want to serve it as a candy on it’s own, you could top the toffee with nuts or chocolate (or both).
Vegan Toffee
1 cup sugar
1 cup Earth Balance
2 tsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients except vanilla in a large sauce pan (larger than you think you need) with a candy thermometer. Stir over low heat until Earth Balance and sugar have melted.
Increase heat to medium-high, stirring constantly. The mixture will bubble up as the water is cooked off. The volume will increase dramatically at this point. After the water has evaporated, the mixture will collapse. Cook until you reach 300° on your thermometer.
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour toffee onto a Silpat
or parchment lined baking sheet and spread into a thin layer (about 1/4 inch) with a silicone spatula. Cool in refrigerator until set. Break into pieces and store in a sealed container.
Looks FAB!
Oh MAN! Yes, please.
If you are trying to make me fall in love with you…too late!
Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. I second Mo’s comment!
Which earth balance do you use for this, i know there are a few different kinds???
-jack
In general I use either the buttery sticks or the original tub. I like the sticks better since it is easier to get accurate measurements, but either works.
Ok, yum. But your directions first say, “Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pan,” and then say, “Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.”
Which is correct?
Thanks!
oops! Yeah, wait and stir in the vanilla at the end. It won’t do anything terrible if you add the vanilla at the beginning, but as vanilla extract is primarily alcohol, you will cook off most the flavor. I’ll fix the recipe.
I wonder if coconut oil could be used instead of the Earth Balance?
While I haven’t tried it, coconut oil or palm shortening should work fine, although you might loose a little of the buttery taste. You might want to add a pinch more salt if you are subbing out the Earth Balance.
Well, I couldn’t get the sugar to dissolve into the coconut oil the same way it dissolves into butter or earth balance… Now I’ve got a hot pot full of sugar and oil.
well, that isn’t good…. Sorry to hear it. On thinking about it, Earth Balance has a bit of water content to it, so that might be what allows the sugar to dislove better. If I (or you) were going to try subbing a pure oil for the EB, I would probably try increasing the water slightly, and melting the sugar with the water, and then adding the oil (before it really starts to caramelize).
Can I use any kind of sugar? I have granulated maple sugar in my shelf. Does it matter?
The short answer is I’m not sure. I don’t know if maple sugar has the same temperature points for caramelization. It is possible it will work, but would also have a maple flavor.
This looks delicious!! I’ve been dying to make my own vegan soy free gluten free candy, especially toffee and caramel. I’ll post my results here.
Thank you!!
What about adding some Immitation butter flavor ? I don’t find enough of the “butteriness” in Earth Balance.
I typically am satisfied with the butteriness of EB, but there is no reason why you couldn’t add more butter flavor (other than a general aversion to artificial flavorings). I used to have some that one of my old co-workers confirmed vegan with the company, but I don’t remember the brand. You’d have to do some checking online or e-mail some companies to source a vegan one.
I have been craving this stuff since a friend of mine made it for me (with chocolate), thanks for the recipe!
By the way I love the script font you are using for your titles.
Did your friend use this recipe? We would like to know what went wrong, but more importantly, how to make it work
We are very disappointed. We followed the directions exactly and wasted a cup of coconut oil. The sugar and coconut oil would not incorporate. We used candy thermometer also. Too bad–we were hoping our sister who makes toffee every year could use this healthier version.
Sorry you had problems. The recipe uses Earth Balance, and I can say that it will for sure work with Earth Balance. In the comments someone else had tried coconut oil and had the same problem. I suggested that you may want to add some water to the sugar to get it to melt, as EB or butter has a fair amount of water content in it. The water will boil off as you heat the toffee. I still haven’t tried using coconut oil, so I can’t actually vouch for it working, or what the trick is. If anyone has had success using coconut oil or shortening, please let us know!