the modern British name for a sweet formerly called ‘taffy’. The older name survives in the USA, but British toffee and American taffy are not quite the same.
Much toffee is still home made. The basic form of British toffee is made from a syrup of sugar and butter with some addition to inhibit crystallization, such as syrup or treacle in place of part of the sugar, or an acid such as lemon juice. It is cooked to the soft or hard crack stage (for soft or hard toffee respectively; see sugar boiling) with little or no stirring, and is poured straight out to set without pulling or other working. Many kinds of additions and flavourings are possible; treacle, nuts, chocolate, cream or sour cream, mint flavouring, and even whisky are among those used.
Welsh forms of toffee (variously called taffi, ffani, or cyflaith) are much more like American taffy. In particular, they are usually pulled, as is most American taffy (see pulled candy). The agreeable custom of taffy-pulling parties has survived up to modern times in parts of Wales, while it is probably extinct in England. Not all Welsh or American taffy contains butter, though usually some honey or syrup is used in the mixture to reduce the amount of crystallization. A popular American sweet is salt-water taffy, a butterless type originally made with sea-water. Another pulled toffee—at least in its classic form—is Irish yellowman, a sweet still often sold at fairs by hucksters proclaiming its supposedly health-giving properties.
Scottish toffees are numerous and renowned. Those which are specialities of Glasgow and Helenburgh, and one or two others, are described under sweeties.
See also brittle; caramel; fudge; toffee apple.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
