Bonfire Toffee — Treacle Toffee Made with Butter

Bonfire toffee is the taste of 5 November in the north of England: dark as tar, glassy, a touch bitter from the black treacle and rich from the butter. It shatters when you crack it and then sticks to your teeth for the rest of the evening, which is exactly how it should be. It needs only six ingredients and a thermometer, and it is made with butter, as it always has been.

Why butter?

The butter is doing the real work. Black treacle on its own is strong and almost burnt-tasting; butter softens that edge, carries the flavour and gives the set toffee its shine. Use a good salted butter: the salt sharpens the treacle. There is no oil in this recipe at all, seed or otherwise, and the tin is greased with butter too.

Makes: about 36 pieces · Prep: 5 minutes · Cook: 25 minutes, plus 1 hour setting

Ingredients

• 115g salted butter, plus extra for the tin
• 450g demerara or soft light brown sugar
• 115g black treacle
• 115g golden syrup
• ¼ tsp cream of tartar
• 75ml water

Method

1. Butter a 20cm square tin generously, right into the corners. Have a sugar (candy) thermometer clipped to a large, deep, heavy-based pan; the mixture bubbles up a lot, so the pan should be no more than a third full.
2. Put the butter, sugar, black treacle, golden syrup, cream of tartar and water into the pan. Warm over a low heat, stirring gently, until the butter has melted and the sugar has completely dissolved. Do not let it boil until there are no gritty grains left.
3. Turn the heat up and bring to a rolling boil. Stop stirring now. Boil steadily until the thermometer reads 150°C (300°F), the hard-crack stage. This usually takes 15–20 minutes; watch it closely towards the end, as it can scorch quickly.
4. No thermometer? Drop a little into a glass of very cold water. At hard crack it sets instantly into brittle threads that snap cleanly. If it bends or feels chewy, keep boiling.
5. Take the pan off the heat and, very carefully, pour the toffee into the buttered tin. Molten sugar burns badly, so keep children and pets well away and do not touch it.
6. Leave to cool for 10–15 minutes until it is just firm on top, then score it into squares with a buttered knife so it is easier to break later.
7. Leave to set completely, about 1 hour, then turn it out and break along the score lines with the handle of a rolling pin or a small toffee hammer.

Tips

• A reliable thermometer makes this foolproof. The ThermoWorks blog has clear guides on checking and using one for sugar work.
• Use the biggest heavy pan you own. Boiling sugar foams up to two or three times its volume.
• Clean the pan by filling it with water and bringing it back to the boil; the set toffee simply dissolves.
• Bonfire Night has a whole menu. Bake a tray of our Yorkshire parkin made with butter the same week, as it gets better after a few days in the tin, and see our seed-oil-free desserts for more.

For the long story of treacle, toffee and the British sweet tooth, the Food Timeline is a good rabbit hole to fall down.

FAQ

What is bonfire toffee?

It is the dark, brittle treacle toffee eaten in Britain on Bonfire Night, 5 November, especially in the north of England, where it is also called plot toffee or Plot Night toffee. Black treacle gives it its deep colour and slightly bitter edge.

Why butter?

Butter is what makes it toffee rather than just boiled sugar. It rounds off the bitterness of the treacle and gives the toffee its rich flavour and gloss. A neutral vegetable oil adds nothing here, so there is no reason to use one, and there is none in this recipe.

What does the cream of tartar do?

It helps stop the sugar crystallising as it boils, so the toffee sets glassy and smooth rather than grainy. If you have none, a squeeze of lemon juice does a similar job.

Why is my toffee chewy or sticky?

It did not get hot enough. Toffee needs to reach the hard-crack stage, 150°C (300°F), to set brittle. Check your thermometer in boiling water before you start: it should read 100°C at sea level.

Why did my toffee go grainy?

Usually the sugar was not fully dissolved before the mixture came to the boil, or it was stirred while boiling. Dissolve it slowly over a low heat, then leave it alone once it boils.

How do I store it?

Wrap the pieces in baking paper and keep them in an airtight tin in a cool, dry place. Toffee draws in moisture from the air and turns sticky, so keep it sealed and away from the fridge. It keeps well for 2–3 weeks.

More ideas: Yorkshire parkin · Scottish butter shortbread · pumpkin pie with a lard crust.