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The process of making toffee involves boiling the ingredients until the mix is stiff enough to be pulled into a shape which holds and has a glossy surface. The resulting mixture will typically be poured into a shallow tray and allowed to cool to form a sweet. Different mixes, processes, and (most importantly) temperatures of toffee making will result in different textures and hardnesses, from soft and oftimes sticky to a hard brittle material.

A variant is Cinder Toffee, (also called Honeycomb toffee) in essenace an aerated version which has gaseous bubbles introduced into the structure as the result of the addition of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and vinegar during the mixing. The baking soda and vinegar, one a base and the other an acid, react to form carbon dioxide which is trapped in the highly viscous mixture.

Taffy is made to about the same recipe but is pulled, not poured and is always chewy. The lump of candy is continuously pulled and folded as it cools, giving an aerated candy which is cut into bite-sized lumps. Taffy is pulled commercially by machine on metal hooks; however home made taffy is pulled by hand between two people. Taffy pulls were a common social event in the 18th century and still occasionally practiced today. The two-person format allowed romantic possibility and the word "taffy" was sometimes used to mean "flattery". Salt water taffy with its wrapped pastel colored fruit-flavored candies was a noted invention of Atlantic City, New Jersey and a common souvenir of the resort town.

A particular application of toffee is in toffee apple s literally appleMalus domestica Malus sieversii Apple is the fruit ( pome) of the genus Malus belonging to the family Rosaceae, and is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits. Table apples are of the species M. domestica or hybrids of it. Botanical origins Kazakhsts, normally on wooden sticks, that have been coated by dipping into molten toffee. They are similar to taffy apples or caramel apples which both names for apples which are covered in caramelCaramel is a food which has a brown color and a pleasant toasted flavor, derived from the caramelization of sugar. Caramel is used to flavor candy and soft drinks such as Coca Cola. It is also commonly used as a food coloring (with the E number E150). but not the same as candy apples which are coated in cinnamon hard candy.

The origins of the word are unknown, though older variations include taffy and taffies. The Oxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary (OED is a comprehensive multi-volume dictionary published by the Oxford University Press. Generally regarded as the definitive dictionary of Modern English, it defines around 500,000 headwords and includes some 2. 5 million i dates the first publication of the word to 1825Events January 4 King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies dies and is succeeded by his son Francis I of the Two Sicilies. February 9 After no presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes, the United States House of Representatives elects John, though it is not much to be doubted that the sweet dates back considerably further than that. (McGee, 1984 p. 410) claims it to be "from the CreoleThe term Creole is used with different meanings in different contexts, which can generate confusion. Generally it refers to a people or a culture that is distinctive or local to a region, but with various additional shades of meaning. Disambiguation See a for a mixture of sugar and molasses" and that it entered the language early in the 19th centuryAlternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical ( 18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801- 1900. Events The Little Ice Age ended.

Owing to its gelatinous properties, toffee has the capacity to pull loose dental fillings from teeth, and for this reason tends not to be favoured by the dental profession.

Toffee gives rise to a reasonably derisive idiom in the British English; it can be said of an incompetent person that they cannot do (whatever it is they cannot do) for toffee. In another slang phrase, to be "toffee-nosed" is to be condescending or aloof. Upper class people or those with airs and graces in the United Kingdom are often derisively referred to as "toffs".