As a kid, I thought of toffee only as the dark, crunchy center found in those chocolaty Hershey’s treats, Heath bars. It wasn’t until adulthood, when I ventured into Scotland, the land of sweeties and sticky toffee pudding, that I realized how versatile and tasty this confection could be.

Although my toffee epiphany happened in the UK, the sweet itself comes not from Great Britain but from Canada. There a 16th century French educator, Marguerite Bourgeoys, created a molasses candy to attract, as she reputedly called students, the “little savages” to her French Canadian school.

While Bourgeoys’s toffee featured molasses as its main ingredient, British and American versions use a combination of sugar, butter and water or cream. The three are boiled together in a large saucepan until they reach a temperature of anywhere from 260 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. The higher temperature produces a brittle, tawny candy while the lower yields a luscious, amber syrup.

If firm candy is the goal, the hot toffee is poured out to set. Once it has hardened, it is broken into pieces and either dipped in melted chocolate or doled out as is. In the case of a toffee sauce the liquid is cooled slightly and then drizzled over pudding, cake, ice cream, crepes or other desserts.

In Scotland I sampled several types of toffee. “Sweeties,” the generic term for toffee and other boiled sweets, could be hard, chewy, or almost fudge-like. Flavored with nuts, chocolate, cinnamon, ginger or whisky, these decadent confections bore little resemblance to the Heath bars of my youth.

The same could be said for sticky toffee pudding. This quintessentially British dessert featured a date-filled, cake-like pudding steeped in warm toffee sauce. Just one bite of this velvety last course and I was hooked. Who knew that something as simple as toffee could taste so good?

BANANA ICE CREAM WITH TOFFEE SAUCE
Serves 6 to 8

For the ice cream:
1 ½ cups whole milk
1 ½ cups heavy cream
¾ cup sugar
8 egg yolks, beaten
1 ½ ripe bananas, mashed

Place the milk, cream and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and slowly add half of the milk mixture to the eggs, whisking constantly. Once the hot liquid has been incorporated, pour the egg-milk mixture into the saucepan and return to the stove. Whisk the ingredients over medium heat until they begin to thicken, about 5 minutes. Pour through a fine mesh strainer and into a bowl and set in the refrigerator to cool. Once cooled, place in a blender with the 1 ½ ripe bananas and blend. Freeze in an ice cream maker and then follow the manufacturer’s instructions for making ice cream. When ready to serve, place several scoops into small bowls.

For the sauce:
1 2/3 cup sugar
½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup whole milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla

In a medium saucepan melt the butter and sugar, stirring to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil, add the milk and vanilla and cook until thickened, approximately 5 minutes. Cool slightly and then drizzle over the scooped ice cream.