This chewy maple candy (toffee) is made with just 5 simple ingredients, plus your favorite topping. A paleo and gluten free candy recipe made with real butter, maple syrup, and dark chocolate. Delicious sweet treat to get you through the holidays. Actually, it’s just good ANYTIME! Makes great holiday food gifts, too.
Hold the phone…. I’m posting a 5 Ingredient paleo maple candy recipe less than a week after tropical banana soft serve. Well, geeze. Just shows how off I am this week.
Holidays that are between seasons throw me off. Do I eat pumpkin? Even thought it’s 90F? Or do I keep drinking mojito smoothies until we reach September 23rd and a crisp cool 85F? LOL! First world problems.
In all honesty, I think this is the best time to ENJOY both. End of summer fruit and SO close to Fall spices/flavors. You get variety and comfort at the same time.
Which leads me to this maple candy recipe. Uh… can I just call this crack toffee? Yes, let’s go with it.
It’s addicting in the best way possible. Paleo and gluten free candy it is, sure, but I won’t lie, it’s no superfood. Just super delicious. Actually, come to think of it, maple and butter and superfoods. I’ll explain my reasoning in a minute.
But first. A STORY! True story, once upon a time there was a young blog girl who grew up with 3 brothers. They often dared her to do stuff. Like eat WHOLE sticks of butter in one sitting. Ahem… that girl was me. The only problem was that after I accepted the dare and ate the stick of butter, I realized that I REALLY liked butter. In fact, I continued to eat slabs of butter with cinnamon sugar or maple syrup on top. Obviously this was without my mom knowing. In fact, I don’t think she know now. Haha, whoops. Maybe I’m really Paula Dean’s long lost daughter? I kid. Honestly, I never had any health issues growing up. I was quite active and healthy. I guess you could say my life life motto back then was “fueled by butter!” Haha.
Point being friends, REAL butter is magical (if well tolerated). And if fact, it can be a healthy addition to the diet. Just don’t eat the whole stick in one sitting like I did. Instead focus on using it recipes or a little bit here or there for individual servings.. Also, Dairy Free Ghee, Grass-fed, or even the new coconut oil based vegan butters work wonders as well! Oh the natural healthy fats make me swoon!
Nerdy Nutrition Facts about Butter –>
Yes I am going there. BUT… only so I can justify the 5 ingredient paleo maple toffee addiction. Cool?
- Butter contains healthy fat soluble vitamins. Vitamin k2 in particular. Remember my love for Vitamin K in the Brussel Sprouts recipe? Yes, it’s so needed. But Vitamin K2 does wonders for calcium metabolism.
- Butter contains a two pretty AMAZING fatty acids. One is called butyrate and the other Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA). Both contain anti-inflammatory properties (source), but what I love about butryate (I may be bias) is that is can help with your digestive system by regulating proper cell growth or “balance” of good/bad cells in the lining of the gut.
Don’t worry, I won’t get any more nerdy on you. Just had to hare those two tidbits. Like I said, maybe those healthy facts justify my reasoning for sticks of butter as a young child. I’m one big BUTTER LOVING machine now!
Okay, now let’s discuss how 5 ingredient maple candy can fit in here. Um…. can you tell by the picture below?
Ingredients in Paleo Maple Candy (Toffee)
ALL THE BUTTAH!
Today’s paleo and gluten free maple candy is my ode to butter. With a little bit of dark chocolate and coconut sugar mixed in. You diggin it?
All you need are 5 ingredients and a lot of LOVE for healthy snacks and desserts to make the recipe for maple candy.
Although… I won’t lie. IF.. and only IF you want a topping, then this will make it a 6 ingredient toffee. 5 or 6, meh. Same thing right? Does water count as an ingredient? Ugh, you get my point. Still, butter is INVOLVED. YEA!
Personally, I liked adding a little coconut sugar and crushed almond on top. For Crunch factor. Hello, my blog is Cotter Crunch. You can quote me on that. Obviously, you don’t have to add any topping. I will leave that up to you.
So what does it take to make this toffee? Mmmm… just 15 minutes and then bam, in the fridge it goes.
What temperature do you cook maple candy?
One tip –> to perfect the chewy toffee texture, I highly recommend using a candy thermometer or a thermometer that reaches 330- 350F. You’ll be cooking the maple candy to a temp of 300 on a candy thermometer. When it cools and hardens, it becomes toffee!
Let’s get to it. You’re gonna love this maple candy toffee! Super easy and great for holidays!
Print
Easy Maple Candy Toffee (Paleo + Gluten Free)
- Total Time: 29 minute
- Yield: 16 pieces 1x
Description
Maple candy toffee made with 5 ingredients plus your favorite topping! With real butter, maple syrup, and dark chocolate This gluten free candy is so easy to make, and it makes a great holiday food gift.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter (8oz) softened – (We use KerryGold)
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (Enjoy life Vegan/GF brand)
- Optional toppings or add-ins if desired – crushed nuts, cinnamon, vanilla, etc.
TOOLS
- Baking pan
- Parchment paper
- Small sauce pan
- Candy thermometer
Instructions
- First make sure your butter is softened somewhat. This speeds up the process.
- In a small sauce pan, combine your butter, sugar, maple syrup, and water.
- Mix on stove top on medium heat until sugar is dissolved into butter.
- Increase heat to medium high until you reach a boil. Don’t boil too high or too long otherwise your sugar will burn.
- Reduce heat to medium or at 285F, somewhat of a soft boil.
- Continue to cook, whisking constantly, until candy thermometer reaches 300/hard stage (this will take about 10-15 minutes). Be careful to watch the pot so the mixture doesn’t overflow. If it starts to, just lift pot with pot holder for a second then place back down.
- The liquid boil will be nice dark amber color once done.
- Carefully pour the hot mixture onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Spread it around evenly.
- Pour your dark chocolate chips on top.
- The chocolate will start to melt with mixture. Spread the melted dark chocolate around evenly with spatula.
- Add any other topping you’d like. Crushed nuts, salt, cinnamon, vanilla, etc. Spread it around the pan as well.
- Place in fridge for 2 hrs.
- Once hardened, remove from fridge and cut into pieces.
- I like to add a little coconut sugar on top to make it more “sticky.” This is optional.
- Store in air tight container or ziplock bag.
- I keep mine in fridge to last longer but room temperature is fine as well.
Notes
If you don’t have a thermometer, just be sure to continue whisking at soft boil for at least 10-12 minutes.
This is a good basic toffee recipe. You can add in vanilla extract, spices, nuts, cranberries, etc!
Be careful when cooking; you don’t want butter/sugar mixture to boil over. It’s very HOT when you pour onto baking sheet, so do so gently.
Substitutes
Nutritional Info
- Nutrition as shown is for one piece, with nuts on top
- Prep Time: 2 hr
- Cook Time: 15 min
- Category: dessert
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 piece
- Calories: 161
- Sugar: 13.9g
- Sodium: 6.9mg
- Fat: 12g
- Saturated Fat: 7.5g
- Carbohydrates: 14.7g
- Fiber: 0.2g
- Protein: 0.3g
- Cholesterol: 28.7mg
Keywords: gluten free candy, maple toffee, paleo dessert
If you want STICKY toffee, just drizzle with a little extra maple syrup or coconut sugar. Oh so bad yet so good, right?
Confess.. did you love butter as much as I did growing up? Are you ready for so all the holiday shenanigans and treats?
If you are, make it PALEO MAPLE CANDY TOFFEE!
Cheers,
LC
