1825, tuffy, toughy, southern British dialectal variant of taffy. Modern spelling recorded by 1843.
Entries linking to toffee
taffy n.
coarse candy made from sugar or molasses boiled down and cooled, 1817, related to toffee, but of uncertain origin; perhaps associated with tafia (1763), a rum-like alcoholic liquor distilled from molasses, presumably of West Indian or Malay (Austronesian) origin (perhaps a Creole shortening of ratafia). On this theory, the candy would have been made from the syrup skimmed off the liquor during distillation.