Here’s an easy recipe for homemade Heath Bars. These candies have a crispy toffee layer on the bottom topped with chocolate and almonds. Watch the video showing you how to make these, then scroll to the bottom of this post and print out the recipe so you can make them at home.
Yes… it’s like your favorite candy bar, but homemade! Well, it’s my favorite anyways. I love the crunch of the toffee with that chocolate layer on top.
How to Make Homemade Heath Bars:
You’ll make a toffee layer first. The toffee layer is made up of butter, sugar, corn syrup and water. The toffee layer is the best part!!! Then you’ll spread the toffee mixture onto a greased pan. Melted chocolate chips are spread on top. And chopped nuts are added to the chocolate.
Choose either almonds or pecan to sprinkle on top of the chocolate. I prefer almonds… but these Heath Bar pieces are awesome either way.
Once they’ve cooled a bit, you’ll take a sharp knife and cut the giant heath bars into pieces. They’ll break apart easily- kind of roughly cut into jig-jag pieces.
The Best Heath Bars Recipe
This is a lovely recipe to add to holiday treat platters, or even to just make for having around for sweet munching. Everyone loves a good chocolate covered toffee candy.
Warning: Heath Bars are awfully addictive. If you think you can eat just one piece… NOPE. Not gonna happen. It truly is my favorite candy. Whenever I see Heath Bars in a candy shop, I can’t resist buying them. And now we can make it at home. How deliciously dangerous is that?!
Is it hard to make homemade candy?
It’s not as hard as you think to make homemade candy. Buy a candy thermometer on Amazon (only $10) to help you through the process, and you’ll be good to go.
When you’re making the toffee, the candy thermometer simply clips on the side of your saucepan and helps measure the temperature of the toffee as it’s heating. It’s very handy!
Troubleshooting- separated toffee or chocolate
It happens to all of us sometimes, and it doesn’t mean this is a horrible recipe. If you notice a thin, oily layer on top of your candy, it means that the butter has separated from the sugar in the recipe. These ideas are all shared from TheSpruceEats.com.
Why it’s happening, and ways to prevent this from happening:
- Try not to “shock” your candy by drastically turning the heat up or down during cooking.
- It is especially important to watch the candy at the beginning of the cooking process, while the butter and sugar are melting together because separation can often result if these two elements melt unevenly. Medium-low heat is best.
- Separation is more likely to occur when using thinner (cheaper) saucepans, as they don’t conduct heat efficiently and lead to “hot spots” that can cause the butter to separate.
- Humidity can cause the butter to separate, so if your kitchen is very warm and humid, it’s not a good time to be making candy.
How to save the toffee or chocolate if it separates during the cooking process:
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir constantly and smoothly until it comes back together, then gradually return it to the heat, stirring constantly.
- Try adding a spoonful or two of very hot water to toffee to help it come together. Start with one tablespoon and stir the candy to help it come together. Add additional spoonfuls if necessary, but do not add more than 1/4 cup of water total.
- If you have already poured your candy out to cool by the time it separates, the candy is unfortunately too far gone to save. However, you can probably wipe off the excess oil and crush the toffee to use in baked goods or as an ice cream topping.
- When you’re ready to pour your chocolate layer on top of your toffee, the surface of your toffee should be matte, rather than shiny. If it’s shiny, then your butter has separated out of the toffee and is concentrated on the surface. If this happens, the chocolate isn’t going to adhere to the toffee. You might be able to save it. Try blotting up the butter with paper towels. Then you can spread the layer of chocolate on top.
Holiday Gift Idea
Wrap up some Heath Bars pieces and gift to a friend. This makes a wonderful holiday gift, and Heath Bars are nice for bringing as a hostess gift for parties too.
Thank you to Miranda from the CookieDoughAndOvenMitt.com blog for shooting these beautiful photos of the Heath Bars for me.
Here are a few more homemade candy recipes you might enjoy:
- Key Lime Fudge by Recipe Girl
- Homemade Butterfingers by RecipeBoy
- Peppermint Oreo Truffles by Recipe Girl
- Homemade Twix Bars by Zagleft
- Coffee Toffee by Recipe Girl
Heath Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 3 tablespoons water
- 6 ounces milk chocolate chips, melted
- 1 cup finely chopped almonds or pecans
Instructions
- Line an 11x7-inch pan with well-greased wax or parchment paper. Set aside.
- Melt the butter on low in a heavy saucepan. Stir in the sugar, syrup and water. Stirring constantly, use a candy thermometer and cook until the mixture reaches 305 degrees F.
- Pour the hot candy onto the prepared pan. Spread the mixture to the edges. Allow to sit until the mixture is stable but still hot. Spread the melted chocolate chips over the top. Sprinkle nuts over the top of the chocolate and gently press in.
- Allow the candy to cool and harden. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.
Notes
- To melt chocolate chips, put in pyrex and microwave. Stir every 30 seconds until smooth.
- I suggest you read through the post before making this recipe for any potential problems you may have -- with butter separating during the cooking process or with the chocolate separating from the toffee.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Love this
Nuts: salted or unsalted?
unsalted
Make it only on a sunny day and it won’t separate
This is my fav candy too. I’m in Ireland and the corn syrup is hard to find. Can I use golden syrup?
I’m not sure!
Perfect, and perfectly easy! I used toasted hazelnuts, the only nut I had on hand.
II have tried this recipe twice and both times it was an epic fail. Everything is going fine until it gets above 250 degrees. When I made English Toffee decades ago, in Florida and Ohio, it turned out great! This is the 3rd time and 2 recipes I have tried here in the high desert and all 3 attempts were FAIL. I live at over 5000 feet so is that the problem? I make peanut brittle every year for Christmas and it turns out fine without adjustments. I just do not get it. I use copper core stainless steel Emeril pans so it can’t be that. I also use 2 thermometers a glass candy thermometer and a Thermopen just to be sure. I just do not get it. I tried adding hot water when it began separating and that seemed to make it worse. I used Challenge salted butter and pure cane sugar. This second try foamed up a lot when it got close to 300 degrees. I am a very experienced cook & baker but I don’t make much candy outside of fudge and peanut brittle every year. I just remember how perfect and delicious that batch of English Toffee was. So much better than Heath could ever be. I’m bummed.
Bummer- it does work out, but I’m sorry you had trouble! Here is another recipe for “English Toffee,” that you might like to try: https://recipesforholidays.com/english-toffee/
I’ve been making English toffee (same as this recipe) for 40+ years. It just doesn’t work at high altitude.
I thought this recipe was great! Very detailed instructions. After reading another review I decided to use an 8×8 pan and it is the perfect size for my liking. I love to hear people say I changed this or I changed that and it didn’t come out well? It is a bit of a pain stirring the pot for 30 minutes or so but that’s what’s involved with making candy! It is cooling right now and in about 40 more minutes….yummo!! Thanks for this easy, fun and I’m sure delicious candy bar recipe!!!!
Can I use candy cane chips instead of nuts?
You can try!
Hi; I mad. the Toffee Heath candy for my daughter’s. Birthday. Turned out perfect
AWESOME recipie , they came out perfectly !