Cinnamon Toffee Cream Cheese Dip: An unbelievably delicious all-purpose dessert dip made with just 5 ingredients and sprinkled with easy homemade toffee. Serve with all your favorite salty, sweet, and fruity snacks!
In the spirit of all things giving this season, I feel the complete and utter need to give you the recipe for this cinnamon cream cheese toffee dip. OK, it’s not actually a full-on holiday recipe, like The Mistletoe Kiss, since you could make it year-round without anyone batting an eye.
But it’s a holiday-ish recipe nonetheless. The toffee is what makes it a holiday-ish recipe in my mind since toffee seems to be everywhere during these few weeks of Christmas.
Regardless of when you actually serve it, this easy cream cheese dip will knock your socks off!
How to Make Homemade Toffee
To make this dip, you’ll start with some toffee. And because I’m me, I’m going to urge you to make your own.
It’s not going to be some fancied up toffee, covered in chocolate and pricey chopped nuts. Nope! It’s plain jane toffee made with a stick of butter, a cup of sugar, and a little salt.
That’s it. Seriously, friends. This is one of the most simple recipes I’ve made in ages.
You’ll boil the 3 ingredients together for about 20 minutes, pour the liquid toffee onto a baking sheet, and let it cool. Once it cools and hardens, you have homemade TOFFEE!
A Stupid Easy Cream Cheese Dip
I’ve seen loads of cream cheese dip recipes floating around the web and let me tell you: some people really over complicate these recipes.
There’s no need for expensive mascarpone to be added to a cream cheese dip. And while caramel sounds like a great idea in a dessert dip, it can often cause the dip to become soupy and sickeningly sweet.
This cream cheese dip, however is quite perfect, if I’m being honest. It’s easy to make with just 5 ingredients that you’ll blend together in a bowl with a hand mixer, stand mixer, or a strong arm and a spatula.
And the flavor is downright phenomenal! It tastes like a cross between a smooth cream cheese frosting and the cinnamon cream cheese filling I stuffed my pumpkin roll with this past fall.
Toffee Dip Meets Cream Cheese Fruit Dip
You might be surprised that there’s no actual toffee in this dip. When my cousin and I developed this recipe (at the urging of one of her very smart co-workers), we decided to leave the toffee as a topping rather than mixing it into the dip.
Mixed into the cream cheese dip, the toffee would soften into puddles of caramel. This isn’t a bad thing, of course, but we wanted crunchy bits of toffee. So, we sprinkled those crunchy toffee bits on top and around the sides of the dip.
And then we used some of the larger pieces of toffee for dipping that delicious dip! How could we not?!
Since this is a smooth and sweet dessert dip, we paired it with both complementary and contrasting flavors and textures.
Sweet apples were an absolute winner for dipping and they certainly lightened up the list of possible dipping choices. And thus, I’m also considering this to be the perfect cream cheese fruit dip as well.
Graham crackers and snappy gingersnap cookies added a bit of crunch we craved with a creamy dip like this one.
Salty snacks, like pretzels (though not pictured here), were also dipped into this cream cheese dip like it was our JOB because salty + sweet is ALWAYS a winning combination!
Overall, this cinnamon toffee cream cheese dip is by far one of the best things to pass my lips in the last few weeks. We included it as part of a holiday dessert board we created that I’ll be sharing soon but it’s definitely something you can make and serve on its own with fun snacks to dip and share. And maybe a gingerbread latte or some white hot chocolate on the side!
Cinnamon Toffee Cream Cheese Dip
Cinnamon toffee cream cheese dip is an unbelievably delicious all-purpose dessert dip made with just 5 ingredients. It's sprinkled with easy homemade toffee bits which you can serve with all your favorite salty, sweet, and fruity snacks!
Ingredients
For the toffee (see note below):
- 8 oz unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ⅛ tsp table salt
For the cinnamon cream cheese dip:
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup confectioners sugar
- 1 tsp half and half, heavy cream, or milk
Suggestions for dipping and serving:
- Sliced apples and/or pears
- Extra toffee in large pieces
- Stroopwafel
- Gingerbread men and/or gingersnaps
- Graham crackers, store-bought or homemade
- Pretzels
Instructions
- To make the toffee: Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan or have an instant read thermometer ready to go.
- Heat the butter, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium high heat, stirring frequently until the butter is melted and the sugar has dissolved. Try to not heat the butter too quickly or it will start to separate, which will cause issues when the toffee is finished.
- Bring the mixture to a boil and allow it to boil without stirring until the temperature reaches 300° F. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and pour the liquid onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Spread the toffee out into a relatively even ¼-inch (ish) layer and set aside to cool completely. Once the toffee has cooled, break half of it apart into ½-inch (ish) pieces and drop the pieces into a small zip-top bag or an airtight container. (They don't have to be perfectly sized.) Break the remaining toffee into larger pieces and store in a zip-top bag at room temperature. You can use this toffee later for dipping into the dip or for any other recipe you'd need toffee for.
- To make the cinnamon cream cheese dip: Add all of the ingredients to a medium bowl and beat with a hand mixer until creamy and completely combined.
- Line a small bowl (a cereal bowl is a good size) with a piece of plastic wrap to create a mold for the dip. Transfer the cream cheese dip to the bowl. Press the dip into the bowl so it makes good contact with the plastic wrap and then smooth out the top. Press a second piece of plastic wrap on top of the dip to prevent a skin from forming and tightly seal the bowl. Refrigerate for at least 4 hour or up to 3 days.
- To assemble: Ready a small plate that is wider than the widest part of the bowl you used for molding the dip. Remove the top piece of plastic wrap from the dip. Carefully flip the bowl over onto the center of the plate and slowly remove the plastic wrap from the dip. Smooth out the dip with a knife and then sprinkle some of the remaining small toffee bits over the top and around the base of the dip. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving to allow the dip to soften a little.
Storage: The toffee will keep well in a zip-top bag or airtight container at room temperature for about 2 weeks. The dip will keep well in the fridge for 3 to 4 days.
Notes
You can certainly buy toffee or toffee bits for this dip or if you've already made your own, feel free to use that instead.
Assemble the dip right before you plan to serve it. The toffee on top of the dip will start to soften a bit if you assemble the dip too far in advance.
toffee recipe adapted from All Recipes
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