History of toffee

Toffee is chewy candy made of brown sugar, molasses, or syrup that is boiled until very thick and pulled until it is glossy and holds it shape.

The origin of the word ‘toffee’ seems to be lost in time although it might de described from ‘taffy’, a dialect word for ‘sticky’.

The word taffy dates to 1817 and preceded toffee which dates to 1825. Until comparatively recently, the term ‘toffee’ was used simply for the substance made by boiling sugar and butter together; not until the 1930s do examples begin to appear of its use for a single as in ‘a pound of toffees’.

Toffee apples, apples coated with a thin layer of toffee and fixed on a stick, seem to be an early twentieth century invention; they are first mentioned in the Christmas 1917 issue of the B.E.F Times.

In America they are called candy apple. English toffee is a very butter form of toffee to which almonds are often added.
History of toffee