Caramel, Butterscotch, and Toffee: Similar Yet Different - Wockenfuss Candies (2024)

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Caramel, Butterscotch, and Toffee: Similar Yet Different - Wockenfuss Candies? ›

The Difference Between Butterscotch, Toffee, and Caramel

When it comes to butterscotch and toffee you've got a lot of the same ingredients. They also use butter, vanilla, and heavy whipping cream, but it's the sugar that differentiates these two from caramel. While caramel uses white sugar, both butterscotch and toffee use brown sugar.

The difference between caramel and toffee is greater, as caramel has a more liquid consistency and is usually pure sugar (it doesn't contain butter or flour). Still, the taste of caramel, fudge, and toffee is relatively similar, as they are all made from mostly sugar (as well as butter in the case of fudge and toffee).

Caramel is typically made with granulated sugar, milk and/or cream, butter, and sometimes vanilla. The primary flavors of caramel are the sugar and milk/cream. Butterscotch on the other hand is made with brown sugar. It's primary flavors are brown sugar and butter.

As the sugar melts and cooks, the caramel gets richer and toastier, and the color goes from a pale gold to a dark amber. Butterscotch is made from cooking down brown sugar with butter, and its flavor is sweeter and softer than that of caramel. Dulce de leche is made from slowly cooking cow milk and sugar together.

The food writer Harold McGee points to the native Creole language wherein toffee indicates a mixture of molasses and sugar. A third theory says that toffee's earlier spelling, “toughy” or “tuffy”, was actually meant to refer to it's chewy toughness. The term is said to have come from a southern British dialect.

Toffee is a confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses (creating inverted sugar) along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of 149 to 154 °C (300 to 310 °F). While being prepared, toffee is sometimes mixed with nuts or raisins.

butterscotch, usually hard candy made by boiling brown sugar and butter and sometimes corn syrup together in water. The derivation of the name is disputed as to whether it denotes the candy's origin in Scotland or an original ingredient of “scotched,” or scorched, butter.

Toffee is just sugar, butter, water, and vanilla cooked to a hard crack stage and caramel has added heavy whipping cream and cooked to a firm ball stage. While I like toffee, I think that if it's not done right it takes on a burned sugar flavor and I really prefer a richer flavor of caramel!

The English toffee eaten with regularity in America is also called buttercrunch. What's the difference? Primarily, the difference rests in the ingredients. Toffee in Britain is made with brown sugar, whereas buttercrunch is made with white granulated sugar.

Is toffee hard or soft? ›

Toffee is a hard candy made by cooking a sugar syrup with butter to the hard crack stage, 300–310°F (149–154°C), and then pouring it out to cool. It can have inclusions or not, and it can be made either very dense and hard or can be lightened by adding baking soda when the candy is almost done cooking .

Caramel is the correct spelling if you're talking about food or colors. Carmel is a misspelling when used in those contexts, but it is a word that can be used as a name for people or places.

Caramel can be produced in so many forms such as, sauce, a chewy candy, or a hard candy because of how much of an ingredient is added and the temperature it is being prepared at.

The difference between butterscotch and caramel is that caramel is made with white granulated sugar and cooked to 340 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas butterscotch is made with brown sugar and cooked to 289 degrees Fahrenheit.

Toffee is a candy made by caramelizing sugar or molasses along with butter. Candy is a sugar based flavoured and coloured sweet.

Brittles are typically composed mostly of sugar, while toffees contain a fair amount of butter and in some cases milk. This makes toffees fuller and richer in taste, while brittles are more purely sweet and sugary. Brittles are also much thinner than most toffees.

Werther's Original products are made of the finest caramel. We use the best ingredients to make every piece something worthy of being wrapped in gold!

English Toffee is a nationwide favorite that is easily made with only a few ingredients. The difference between regular toffee and English Toffee is one important ingredient – butter! I make English Toffee throughout the year for special occasions and it's always a big hit.

The difference is mainly in the candy-making process: taffy is pulled and stretched until it's soft and chewy. Toffee, on the other hand, won't stick in your teeth like taffy, because it is boiled, shaped, and allowed to harden into a delicious, glossy slab.

The term "butterscotch" is thought to originate from the confection's primary ingredients – butter and the process of "scotching," which in this context means to cut or score. The "butter" part of the name straightforwardly refers to one of the key components of the sweet.