Vegan Candy Recipes: Mom's Perfectly Crunchy English Toffee

Sugar and spice makes everything nice… but chocolate makes everything marvelous (or as my mom would say, “maaaaaaaahvelous dahling”). When I was little, my mother taught me that the best chocolate chip cookie recipe comes from the back of the Nestle bag, tea time must include a raspberry jam and chocolate chip sandwich, and your holiday baking should include no less than three chocolate-centric recipes. My mother was as fierce at baking as she was at loving every single person she ever met; and chocolate was her true love. In the early summer our kitchen became clothed in the scent of strawberries, and the air became sweet and fragrant as she cooked batch after batch of her homemade jam. Arriving home after school in my early years was filled with sensations of warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies resting on their cooling racks as I eyed them greedily. And every year I would yearn for the end holiday months where I’d help her roll out chocolate coated coconut bonbons, stack the candied cherries on mini cheesecakes, and eat sheets of luxurious chocolate-coated pecan toffee, having no regret for the tummy ache that would soon ensue. In short: every year I yearned for toffee. Recently I was rifling through files and came across the collection of my mother’s recipes that she left me, shocked to see her renowned toffee recipe included. As I read it over I could taste the depth of the molasses flavor, feel the chocolate melt on my tongue, and came alive with the snap sensation of the pecan pieces. It only made sense to honor her, and my craving, with a vegan version that rivaled that couldn’t-put-it-down deliciousness of the toffee my mother had once created. What I found in my vegan transformation attempts was that vegan toffee is very sensitive to sugar and butter replacements. While baking is a science, vegan test baking is more like quantum mechanics--in my opinion. Because of this, I have made all of the mistakes so that I can guide you in the easiest streamlined experience that will get crave-worthy, mouth-watering, put-your-hands-in-mitts-so-you-stop-eating-it toffee, that will ‘wow’ your family, on the table--STAT! It was also my goal to uphold the integrity of my mother’s recipe and traditional English toffee in general. For this reason you will see coconut palm sugar which is BY FAR the best vegan sugar for creating the dark, in-depth caramel that’s desired with a traditional toffee. I purchased mine at my local Albertson’s grocery store--it was not at all hard to find. And for someone who had never used it before, I’m now IN LOVE! From my family to yours, I hope you enjoy this maaaaaaaahvelous toffee recipe! ;)