Sri Lankan Milk Toffee
My fool-proof recipe to make perfect melt-in-your-mouth Sri Lankan Milk Toffee at home. They are so delicious, have the perfect milky nutty sweetness and they smell incredible too. If you ever struggled with making Sri Lankan milk toffee, give this recipe a try. I included all the tips you need to know to get them right. Do not forget to watch the video as well, it's very helpful to learn the correct consistency that you need to achieve.
This recipe doesn't need many ingredients and the process is easy. But similar to all sugar candies, you need to get the process right in order to make perfect milk toffees. I highly recommend that you read through the description before jumping into making them. I really don't want to make chewy liquidy milk toffees or tough hard milk toffees or in other words, I don't want you to hurt your teeth.
Perfectly made milk toffees should set and hold the shape very well once they cool down. Should be able to bite easily, but it shouldn't be too soft that they stick to your teeth. It should crumble and melt in your mouth as you start biting.
Where can it go wrong?
Heat control
Heat control is extremely important when you work with sugar. You cannot rush this. Always keep the heat on medium. If the mixture is heating up too quickly, you'll see that it's bubbling up and rising up too much. If you use a smaller pan, the mixture can actually boil over since we use condensed milk, a milk product. So keep the heat on medium to medium low. If the sugar mixture rises too much too quickly, reduce the temperature.
Not stirring constantly
Making Sri Lankan milk toffee is definitely a labour of love. You need to stir it constantly from start to finish. It takes about 45 minutes - 1 hour for the mixture to reach the right consistency, depending on the heat level. And you need to stir the mixture the entire time. Otherwise, the bottom layer of the mixture turns brown and solid and can stick to the bottom of the pan while the rest remains liquidy.
Stopping before reaching the right consistency
This probably is the most important part of making milk toffee. You need to know when to take it out of the stove/ when it is ready to transfer to the tray. Read the next chapter to learn more about the right consistency. If you stop the cooking process too soon, the mixture won't set properly, it will be chewy and gummy. My mom calls this "bulto toffee texture". A popular toffee in Sri Lanka that was chewy and hard and always stuck to the teeth.
Not cutting them while they are still soft
Milk toffee mixture hardens as it cools down. So it's always good to cut them while they are still soft and workable. This way you can get sharp edges. You can separate the pieces once they cool down completely.
Signs that the mixture has reached the right consistency
It is very important that you cook the condensed milk and sugar mixture until it reaches the right consistency. Otherwise, it can end up being too soft and chewy or super hard. There are a few signs that help you identify when consistency is reached.
- This is by far the best method that has worked for me. At the start of the cooking, when you drop the mixture from the spoon, it usually flows continuously. first like a thread when the mixture is too runny and then like a ribbon as the mixture gets thicker. As soon as it starts to fall in thick, broken drops rather than a steady flow, it means the mixture has thickened enough. That’s the moment to mix in the butter.
- You can feel that the mixture has become heavy, and it starts to clump up together around the spoon, and doesn't spread around the whole pan.
- When you drag the spoon through the mixture in a line, it takes about 1 - 2 seconds for the mixture to come back together. Whereas if you do the same before the mixture reaches the right consistency, it immediately comes back together.
More Milk Toffee variations
I personally like my milk toffees with a milky nutty flavor with a hint of vanilla. So in my milk toffees the flavor comes from condensed milk, cashews, vanilla and butter.
But as of with many Sri Lankan recipes, there are different ways to make them as well as different ways to flavor them. Some people like to use, cardamom or fennel seeds. If you like the flavor of these spices, you can grind them up and add them along with vanilla.
How many pieces to cut?
You can make about 30 large pieces of Milk Toffee with this recipe, or about 40 - 50 small milk toffees depending on how large or small you want to cut your pieces.
Serving Sri Lankan Milk Toffee
My family, especially my dad, loves having his tea or Sri Lankan milk tea along with a piece of Milk toffee. It's the perfect tea time sweet.
Milk Toffee is a very common sweet that we make for the Sri Lankan new year food table. Pairing with the must-have Kiribath (Milk Rice), Seeni sambol or Lunu Miris, Kokis, Butter Cake, Aluwa and many more sweets.
Recipe Video
If you have ever struggled to make Sri Lankan Milk toffee at home, give my fool-proof recipe a try! It always makes delicious, melt-in-your-mouth milk toffees.
- 2 Condensed milk cans - 15oz/397g each
- 1 Cup Water
- 400 g Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 cup Chopped cashews (unsalted, roasted) (optional)
- 2 tbsp Unsalted Butter at room temperature
- 1 tbsp Butter to coat the baking sheet, knife and spatulas
Get a 9 * 13 inch OR two 10 * 7 inch baking pan. Butter the pan, cover with a parchment paper and apply butter again over the parchment paper. Also butter the knife and the spatula you're going to use.
or baking tray is fine, just make sure to shape the milk toffee mixture to a rectangular shape before it sets.
Also cut the cashews into small pieces. If you're using raw cashews, dry roast slightly in a pan.
Add condensed milk to a large pan. Add the water to the emptied cans, mix to dissolve any condensed milk that is left in the can. Then add that water to the pan. Also add sugar. Now turn on the heat and set it to medium-low. Stir continuously.
Keep stirring the mixture until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture starts to bubble and turns into a thick syrup consistency and light brown. Add vanilla. Mix and continuously stir the syrup.
You'll see that mixture turns thicker and thicker as you cook and it also turns darker in color. At the start of the cooking, when you drop the mixture from the spoon, it usually flows continuously. As soon as it starts to fall in thicker, broken drops/paste rather than a steady ribbon like flow, it means the mixture has thickened enough. Now mix in your cashews and butter. (please watch the video and read the recipe description to learn more about the right consistency).
Stir well until all the butter and cashews mix in with the milk toffee mixture. You'll see that the mixture becomes glossy, pulls away from the pan and turns into a pliable soft paste-like consistency.
Now transfer the milk toffee mixture to your buttered baking pan. Using the buttered spatula, evenly spread the mixture and flatten it out.
Cut them into square pieces (roughly about 1 inch - 1.5 inch depending on how big you want those pieces) while toffee mixture is still soft. Let it cool completely before removing the milk toffees from the tray and seperate pieces.
