Toffee Bars aka Toffee Bars
Old-fashioned Toffee Bars, aka Toffee Cookies from a 1979 cookbook, made with a buttery brown sugar shortbread base, melted milk chocolate, and chopped walnuts. There's no toffee candy in them and no candy thermometer needed, and they crunch like toffee without sticking to your teeth. One sheet pan makes 24 bars in 40 minutes, which is why they're a cookie tray and potluck favorite.
Servings 24 Bars
Equipment
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Cream butter.
- Add brown sugar and cream until well blended.
- Add beaten egg yolk, vanilla, and sifted flour and mix well.
- Press onto ungreased 13"x18" cookie sheet (with edges) with your fingers. It should go to the edge.
- Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes or until slightly golden brown.
- Upon removing from the oven, sprinkle milk chocolate chips on top. To keep heat in, cover with aluminum foil. Let them melt for about 5 minutes and then spread evenly across top.
- Sprinkle with walnuts.
- Cut into squares while cookies are warm.
Notes
Helpful Tips
- Press the dough all the way to the edges. Use your fingers and work it out to every corner of the pan. Any gaps, and the butter runs into them, leaving greasy spots and uneven edges.
- Use a pan with raised sides. A rimless cookie sheet will let a cup of melted butter run onto your oven floor. A 13x18 half sheet pan with a lip is what you want.
- Pull them at a slightly golden color, not brown. The edges should be light golden, and the center should look set and dry, not wet. They keep firming up on the hot pan after they come out, so browned in the oven means hard once cooled.
- Tent with foil to melt the chocolate faster. Sprinkle the chips over the hot bars, then lay foil over the pan in a tent about an inch high. Wait 5 minutes, and the chips will spread with almost no effort. No foil means about twice the wait and a lot more dragging.
- Spread the chocolate with an offset spatula. Start in the middle and work out. A butter knife works too; just go slow so you're not pulling up the shortbread underneath.
- Sprinkle the walnuts while the chocolate is still soft. They need to set into it. Wait too long, and they'll slide right off when you cut.
- Cut while still warm. This is the one tip you can't skip. Cooled toffee bars shatter and crumble when you try to cut them. Warm bars cut clean.
- Use a sharp knife and wipe it between cuts. The chocolate will be soft, which is fine. A clean blade after every few cuts keeps your lines sharp rather than smeared.
- No flour sifter? Use a whisk. Run a wire whisk through the flour in the bowl for about 30 seconds. There's no leavening in this dough to break up lumps, so don't skip it entirely.
- Let them cool completely before storing. Warm bars in a container mean condensation, and condensation means soft, sad chocolate.