Whipping up a batch of brittle or toffee, like the Almond Croquant shown here, is a fast and fun DIY project where all skill levels will find success. What's more, brittles and toffees make exceptionally good homemade gifts for friends and family near and far. The room temperature shelf-life of a few weeks means there's no worrying about dry ice and best-by dates. Your sweet treats are also sturdy enough to be piled into a tin box, and even if some breakage occurs, no one will be able to tell—unlike a crumbly cookie, these candies look their best when broken into more abstract and jagged pieces.
Though brittle and toffee are a similar kind of candy, there are a couple of distinctions that make each unique. Brittle typically appears translucent and glassy, with a snappy bite and light caramel flavor. There are almost always a ton of nuts or seeds folded into the mix to keep the texture interesting, and only occasionally will a brittle include a little butter. With toffee, butter is an essential ingredient that is used in generous quantities; the outcome is an opaquer candy with a toastier flavor and softer crunch. In toffee, nuts are often incorporated, too, but in smaller amounts. It is common for recipes like to complement the buttery caramel flavor of the toffee with a thin layer of tempered chocolate on top.
Before diving in with these 10 unique recipes, here are a few universal tips to keep in mind if you are new to the candy-making game: Use a light-colored saucepan for cooking the sugar mixture so you can keep a close eye on the ever-changing color—it can turn from perfect amber to a bitter black faster than you'd think. To prevent the mixture from potentially bubbling up over the pan, lightly spray the sides of the saucepan with cooking spray. And lastly, using a candy thermometer to gauge when the candy is ready will be a huge help and make the process more goof-proof, but here's a way to pull it off without one: spoon a little of the sugar syrup onto some very icy water. Let it sit for 10 seconds then pull it out. Your mixture is done when you can cleanly break the test piece in half.
