Homemade Heath Bars are easy to make at home. You can control the ingredients and they taste like the real thing.
It is no secret I love homemade versions of our favorite candy bars. I shared my homemade nestle crunch bar recipe earlier this week and today I am sharing my version of homemade heath bars.
I love to give homemade candy away as gifts during the holidays. And what better gift to give than a plate of homemade candy bars.
A package of homemade candy in a fun holiday box or container makes a great gift during the holidays. Who doesn’t love homemade candy!
A plateful or package of these homemade heath bars, paired with another homemade candy bar, is a treat anyone would enjoy!
If you love heath bars, or English toffee type candy bars, you will love these. They really are good.
And I might just have eaten a few too many last time I made them. Homemade Heath Bars are one of my favorite homemade candies to make.
This homemade candy does require a candy thermometer, but they are easy to make. Don’t let the temperature thing scare you away from these. They are easy to make they just take a little extra work. And be careful working with the hot sugar mixture.
If you love homemade candy you might enjoy these:
- Homemade Crunch Bars
- Homemade Three Musketeers Bars
- Homemade Mounds Bars
- Homemade Snickers Bars
- Chocolate Covered Cherries
Homemade Heath Bars
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon plus 2 cups butter, at room temperature, divided
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- Grease a 15-in. x 10-inch pan with 1 tablespoon butter and set aside. ( I use my silpat mat here for lining the pan and it works great.)
- In a large pan, melt the remaining butter. Add the sugar, corn syrup and salt. And cook and stir over medium heat until a candy thermometer reads 295 degrees. This is hard-crack stage. Be careful doing this part because it is hot and you don't want to burn yourself.
- Quickly, and I do mean quickly before it hardens, pour into 15 x10 inch pan.
- Let stand at room temperature until completely cooled and hardened. This will take about 2 hrs.
- In a microwave, melt chocolate chips on 50% power, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. Spread over toffee.
- Let stand for 1 hour, you can also put this in the fridge to harden the chocolate up.
- Break into bite-size pieces. Store in an airtight container.
- Enjoy!
I love to cook and bake, and my family loves to eat. Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures is all about sharing my love of cooking, recipes, tips, and ideas of how I combine this cooking passion with a busy life. [
Oh, my mother makes toffee like this (with chopped pecans on top– I realize, not an option with a nut allergy) and it is my FAVORITE. I have sweet memories of making a Christmas breakfast of toffee and coffee when I’d come home from college. 🙂 I had someone try to give me that Christmas Bark stuff made with the saltine crackers under the guise that it was “toffee”. No, ma’am. THIS is toffee. Looks delish!! 😀
Thanks. I used to make them with pecans sprinkled on the top, but adapted the recipe for my daughter’s nut allergy. The whole nut thing is one of the reasons we love these though. Heath type bars have almond extract in them so they are a no for us, but these are so close to the real thing they work fine and satisfy our craving once in a while. 🙂
I don’t have a silpat mat, so do you think could I use plastic wrap, wax or parchment paper successfully? Thanks!
Yes, I think that would work fine. I would probably use parchment. I think the mixture might be too hot for plastic wrap, so I would not use that one. It just sticks less if you use something under it. You could also just really grease the pan well and be fine. I hope that helps!
I use aluminum foil and I spray with butter flavored Pam instead of buttering. Works great!
I think this is the only recipe online for toffee without the saltines. Thank you. I don’t think Joy of Cooking’s toffee is even this easy.
Would this work with a non-dairy “butter,” like earth balance? It sounds so good and I would love to make it vegan, but I would hate to waste ingredients if it requires real butter! Thanks!
I don’t think it would work non dairy. I don’t think it would harden correctly or taste the same. I have never used a non diary butter, but that is my guess.
This looks great! Is there something I could sub for the corn syrup? Would honey work?
I really do not think honey would work in this. I think you need the corn syrup to give you that toffee texture and taste. I don’t think it would harden right with honey, but I could be wrong.
Is there anything else that works in place of the corn syrup? I cannot tolerate corn syrup. Maybe maple syrup?
Hey Denise,
In Mandi Ehman’s (lifeyourway.net) new book she says you can substitute 1 cup corn syrup with 1 1/4 cup sugar + 1/3 water. I’m not sure how it would work for this recipe but thought I’d let you know since no one replied back to your comment.
Corn syrup can be substituted with liquid glucose, its much thicker than corn syrup so you can use half the amount called for otherwise use in a 1:1 substitution itself. Hope this helps, enjoy 🙂
To All- I made this recipe last week. They R Great, but hard hard hard on my teeth. How can the cook make them a little less “rock hard” ?? Thanx-
Don McMillan
p.s. anybody put crushed almonds in them ? problems ?
I think the almonds would work great on these. Really any kind of nut I think would be good. As far as the hardness, mine are usually hard. It is getting to the hard crack stage that makes them the right texture, I am not sure what would happen if you did not cook them that long. I think it might not be as hard, but then it would be too chewy and I am not sure it would be any easier to eat. I am sorry I can’t help more with your question.
I’m still waitin’ for a replt to my comments posted 2-23-12 re: trying to “soften” the hardness of Lynn’s heath bar recipe. Thanx
I have a method that may work, it won’t make them softer but it will make them easier to eat. Use a larger pan for cooling or split the batch between two pans, when pouring the unset toffee mixture to your pan to cool spread the mixture evenly using a greased METAL spatula until the mixture is about 1/8 of an inch thick or less, then score the cooling mixture using a greased knife or pizza roller. This will allow you to get the final product to a manageable thickness and serving size.
On another note I use simple syrup instead of corn syrup to make my toffee, and sometimes I mix crushed almonds that I have toasted before hand into the toffee right as it hits the hard crack stage but you must be very fast to get them mixed in well.
Another option if you score the toffee into bars as it cools is that once they have cooled you can dip one half of each bar into melted chocolate and roll them in toasted crushed nuts to make something similar to an almond roca.
Thanks for the tips. The rolled in toasted crushed nuts sounds so good!
I know it’s … um … well, cheating? But I make this in the microwave now. I am apparently challenged by thermometer candy cooking, but this recipe ALWAYS works 😀
http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/556288-Microwave-English-Toffee