Here’s how toffee crumble is made

Sprinkle coffee nibbles over a bowl of cool creamy pudding, a scoop of ice cream, or a frosted cake, and your dessert is instantly elevated. There’s something about crunchy, buttery perfection that brings out the best in you, me, and every dessert it happens to top. Try this toffee crumble recipe.

This doesn’t have to be a special occasion luxury. Once you find out how toffee crumble is made, you’ll wonder why it’s not on everything, popcorn, muffins, salad, okay, maybe not everything. But it is easy to make and fun to add to lots of treats.

Shortcut

If you don’t have time to make it from scratch and you need some delicious scrumptious nibbles right this second, simply crush up a few pieces of gourmet English toffee. Extra points if it’s chocolate-dipped. Use your hands to break it into smaller pieces then crush it with something hard.

A mortar and pestle work well. If you don’t have one, place the broken pieces in a bowl. Take a spray can of oil or something similarly solid and wrap the bottom with tin foil. Then hammer the bark into bits. Since toffee is hard, small pieces will work best to complement the soft texture of cakes and puddings.

Store the bits in an air-tight container and use them generously.

From scratch

If you seriously want to know how toffee crumble is made, touch your nose and spin counterclockwise three times. That’s the hardest step. Now you’ll need butter and sugar or molasses, as well as a saucepan.

Moreover, making toffee candy the first time can feel a bit strange. You’ll be tempted to turn off the heat, questioning why on earth you’re burning perfectly good sugar. But remember, as the sugar melts and bubbles it begins to caramelize. This is the magical stage when the new, mouth-watering molecules are formed.

Instructions

Add a cup of tightly packed brown sugar or molasses and two sticks of unsalted butter into your pan. Turn the flame on medium and stir continuously with a wooden spatula until the mix is an amber color.

Allow the toffee to boil for three minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Do not turn down the flame.

Pour the mix onto the cookie sheet to cool. Be very careful not to burn yourself. If you want a thin layer of chocolate on your toffee bits, sprinkle chocolate chips across the top. After they’ve melted for a few minutes, gently spread them into an even layer.

While the goodness hardens and cools, you may as well pour a cup of coffee and lick the spatula. 

Once your toffee is hardened, about two hours later, use a metal spatula to cut it into smaller pieces or break it with your hands.

Now turn your delicious toffee into dreamy crumbles. Take a few small pieces at a time and crush them. Since the toffee mixture was boiled to the hard crack point, the sugar crystals are small so applying a touch of force will get it to snap and crunch into your desired crumble.

Once you know how toffee crumbles are made, the next thing to do is decide how to use it.

There are countless options:

• In apple-pie crumble topping  
• In popcorn mixes  
• On ice cream  
• Top of a mound of whipped cream with fresh berries  
• On a milkshake  
• Over a warm brownie  
• On frosted cake  
• On doughnuts  
• Over pumpkin pie  
• On cheesecake  

Hungry yet? A mason jar of toffee crumble also makes for a sweet, affordable gift. Finally, now that you know how to make it, share the love.