Today, January 8th, is English Toffee Day.

Despite its name, English toffee is actually an American variant, usually quite buttery and often mixed with almonds.

Toffee is a type of confection made by heating sugar or molasses and butter to what is known as hard crack, or 149 to 154 °C. A sugar thermometer, which has the various sugar stages marked on it by name, is a useful cooking utensil when making toffee - or, indeed, any other sugar confections that require heating.

Other ingredients are often mixed in with the toffee, especially dried fruit and nuts.

Image: eGDC Ltd