The Easiest Microwave Toffee Recipe (A Step By Step Guide) (2024)

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Forget the stovetop! This easy microwave toffee recipe can be made in just 15 minutes. Your holiday goodie trays will never be the same!

Add this toffee to your treat plates along with some Gingerbread Cookies and Peppermint Bark. You can’t go wrong!

Toffee RECIPE For Amateurs (Like Me!)

First off, I’d like to tell you that candy making is not my forte. It’s finicky, messy, and frankly kind of stressful. So I usually avoid it like the plague, except for during the holidays. I’ve mastered a few recipes, including this almost fool-proof microwave toffee recipe.

You heard that right. It’s made in the microwave. Forget having to boil in a pan on the stovetop to find the hard crack stage! This homemade Toffee Recipe is made in a big bowl and then poured onto a silicone baking mat. Toasted pecans and flaky sea salt make it extra amazing!

We devour this toffee every time we make it. It’s perfect for holiday dessert trays, Christmas gift giving or for Santa’s cookie plate. It has quickly become a favorite at our house, I hope it will become a favorite of yours too!

Toffee Recipe Ingredient Tips

Just a few things to keep in mind for the ingredients…

• Corn Syrup:Dark corn syrup has a richer flavor because it includes molasses, light corn syrup doesn’t have as rich of a flavor. For this recipe you can do either types of corn syrup, but if you’re worried about the molasses taste being too overpowering I would recommend using light corn syrup.
• Chocolate: We recommend using chocolate chips for this recipe. In terms of what type of chocolate you can choose between milk, semi-sweet, bitter-sweet, or white. We love using the Ghirardelli chocolate brand, but you can always use your store brand of chocolate chips.
• Nuts: If pecans aren’t your thing, you could easily switch them out for almonds, cashews or even macadamia nuts (I’d highly suggest using white chocolate on top instead of semisweet for the macadamia nuts).

How to Make Microwave Toffee

It took me three painstaking tries to get this toffee recipe right. Like I mentioned above, candy making can sometimes be finicky. Humidity and altitude play a big part in it as well as temperature (or microwave wattage in this case).

The most important thing you can do is keep an eye on it as it cooks (watch for color cues) and use a thermometer.

LINE a baking sheet with silicone baking mat or parchment paper, set aside.

COMBINE. Grab a large glass microwave-safe bowl, combine the butter, sugars, salt, corn syrup, and water.

MICROWAVE. Microwave for 3 minutes on HIGH. Stir in toasted chopped pecans or stir and keep it plain. Microwave for an additional 8-10 minutes on HIGH or until it reaches 300 degrees F on an instant read or candy thermometer – pause the microwave cooking every 2 minutes and stir and check the temperature – do NOT overcook it, or it will burn.

SPREAD. Pour mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and spread into an even layer.

TOPPING. Add the chocolate chips on top, let them melt then spread the melted chocolate over top. Sprinkle on nuts and sea salt.

SET. Chill until set, then break into pieces.

Storing Your Toffee

STORE the leftover toffee at room temperature in an airtight container. You definitely want to keep the toffee in a cool and dry place so it doesn’t get sticky. If it is really warm in your house, you can keep it in the fridge. When stored at room temperature it will last for about 2 weeks. If you keep it in the fridge it will keep for a bit longer.

You can also FREEZE pieces of toffee for up to 6 months in an airtight container.

For more homemade candy recipes, try:

• Homemade Peanut Brittle
• Mint Overload Bark
• Salted Caramel Peanut Clusters
• Microwave Salted Caramels
• 6 Ingredient Rocky Road Cups