Spiced Toffee Sauce

Course: Dessert, Drinks

Cuisine: British, European

Keyword: dessert sauce, drinks, toffee

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 10

Total Time: 15

Servings: servings (2 tablespoons per serving)

Calories: 162kcal

Serve this earthy warm sauce over cheesecake, ice cream, pound cake or stir it into your favorite drinks.

This is not a recipe for hard toffee candy.

Melt the butter completely in a 9-inch skillet over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, decrease the temperature to medium-low.
Add the brown sugar, pumpkin spice blend, and kosher salt to the skillet.
Constantly stir the sugar and butter mixture, dissolving the sugar, for 5 1/2 minutes or until it reaches 225°F (110°C) on a candy thermometer.
Do your best to incorporate the sugar crystals from the side of the pan into the sauce. Too many sugar crystals on the sides of your pot will cause your toffee sauce to be grainy after cooking.
As the sauce cooks it will go from looking translucent and muddy, to looking foamy and opaque.

After cooking the toffee sauce for 5 1/2 minutes, carefully whisk in the warm cream and vanilla extract in the skillet in a slow, steady stream.
Be sure to keep your arms and face clear of the skillet as you stir in the cream as the mixture will bubble violently when it's added.
The mixture will go from thick and foamy to thin and slightly clear.
After adding the cream, allow the toffee sauce to gently simmer over medium-low heat.
Continue cooking the sauce for 1 1/2 minutes or until it reaches 235°F (115°C).
You don't have to whisk it constantly once the cream is in there, just make sure it doesn't boil (big bubbles violently breaking the surface of the sauce).

Carefully pour the toffee sauce into a heat-safe container once it's done.
Before you cover the container, allow the sauce to cool completely. This prevents condensation from dripping down from the lid onto the toffee sauce.
The sauce will still be runny just after you make it. It will cool to a thick maple syrup consistency, then the texture becomes scoopable as it cools further in the fridge.
Store the Spiced Toffee Sauce, covered, in the fridge for up to 1 month.
Warm the Toffee Sauce for 30 minutes in the microwave and stir until smooth before serving over desserts or stirring into your favorite drinks.

Use salted butter instead of unsalted butter and omit the kosher salt.
Replace the light brown sugar with dark brown sugar for a darker toffee sauce.
Omit the pumpkin spice blend for plain toffee sauce.
Replace the vanilla extract with maple extract or cinnamon extract.

To check the consistency of the sauce, if you don't have a thermometer, scoop up a teaspoon of it and pour it into a glass of ice water. If it solidifies, it's ready.
Toffee sauce thickens as it cools, often in as little as 10 minutes.
Toffee sauce is slightly sandy in texture because of the brown sugar, but smooths out when you heat and stir it.
The difference between this toffee sauce and the toffee we eat in the States is that the former is runny, and the latter is hard and crunchy.
Toffee sauce contains perishable butter and cream, so it must be refrigerated.
Because the toffee sauce firms up in the fridge, you need to reheat it to make it fluid.
It's important not to reheat the entire container of sauce unless you plan to use it all. The more you heat and cool the sauce, the grittier it becomes.

Store spiced toffee sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 month.
Remove the amount you want to eat from the container using a clean spoon.
Reheat the toffee sauce in the microwave for 30 seconds on high heat. Stir the sauce to smooth it out and use it to top whatever.

Allow the sauce to cool completely.
Spoon or pour it into a freezer-safe container and freeze it for up to 2 months.
Thaw frozen toffee sauce in the fridge overnight, then reheat it as needed until smooth.