Toffee pieces are great for adding flavour and texture to chocolate, ice cream, gelato and desserts!

Made for us in Harrogate, they are deep golden brown, irregular pieces between 2 and 10mm across. The bite is the thing to know about: these start hard and turn chewy, where a fudge piece gives way softly from the first moment. Sweetened condensed milk and butter oil carry the flavour, and a thin wax coating keeps the pieces loose in the tub. They come in a 1kg tub or a 5kg box.

What Is the Difference Between Toffee Pieces and Fudge Pieces? 

Texture, and it changes where each one belongs. Our caramel and chocolate fudge pieces are soft and slightly grainy, so they melt into a warm bake. Toffee pieces hold a hard bite that softens into a chew, which is what you want scattered on top of a finished dessert, folded through a cold gelato, or baked into a panettone where the crumb around them stays soft.

How to Use Toffee Pieces

Fold them through a dough or batter at the end of mixing, around 100 to 150g a kilo, and stop as soon as they are spread through. In gelato and ice cream, add them at the end of churning so the coating stays intact and the bite survives the freeze. On a glazed dessert or a dipped bonbon, scatter them while the surface is still tacky and they will set in place on their own. Our Ginger and Caramel Panettone uses this code and shows how they behave in an enriched dough.

Troubleshooting 

Shelf life is 6 months, and a minimum of four and a half months when it reaches you. It travels chilled and keeps best closed between 5 and 16C, away from direct heat and light. Clumping in a warm store room is common and a little pressure on the bag will break it up again.

Pairings and Ideas 

Toffee works with apple, ginger, banana, pecan, coffee, dark chocolate and sea salt. A few ideas to try:

• Baked into an enriched dough, as in our Ginger and Caramel Panettone
• Folded through a vanilla gelato at the end of churning
• Scattered over a sticky toffee pudding with a butterscotch sauce
• Stirred into a flapjack mix before it goes in the tin
• Pressed around the sides of a coffee and walnut cake
• Sprinkled over a dipped apple or a caramel millionaire slice
• Layered into a banoffee pot with cream and banana