One of the best discoveries ever made was Chocolate. I mean really. Whether its in a cookie, in ice cream, on a cake, wrapped about peanut butter. See, now you get it. There's a few reasons why this bar is a go to for me. It's super easy to throw together, doesn't require a lot of tools or equipment and it tastes fricken great.
I just made a pan of this for a little family gathering and I thought, maybe I should share this. The night before I left for the gathering was not easy. The bar was just there on the counter....staring at me. Now I had already cut it and wrapped it in plastic. Thankfully. Otherwise I may have woken with lots of regrets and a bigger waist line. Once you sink your teeth into it, you will completely understand.
I love baking. It's my stress reliever. Sometimes I go way, way overboard and bake all day long and then I have to figure out how I can get rid of it all. I think secretly some of our neighbors actually like us when we randomly drop off a load of treats for them. Thats probably the only time though.
Here we go...
Get all your ingredients out and place them on the counter. "Mise en place" a boujee French term for having everything in its place. This is more true of cooking in general, but you don't want to be trying to track down ingredients while you are right in the middle of making something.
Really about 10 ingredients and this delicious bar will be ready. First, soften your butter. You can do this is the microwave, but be careful not to completely melt it. Softened and melted butter will give your baked goods completely different results. I've seen a couple of different ideas regarding softening butter, but I don't need to reinvent the wheel, so I will just stick with what works. Pulling your eggs out of the refrigerator and letting them warm until you are ready to put them in the recipe will also help your baked good turn out better.
You can completely measure out all of your ingredients, like I did for the picture or compile the ingredients that will go together when you begin combining them. Wet with wet, dry with dry, sugar with sugar. You will always want to sift your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, & salt for this recipe). This will ensure that you have no lumps. Speaking of, when measuring flour, also spoon the flour into the measuring cups. DON'T ram the measuring cup in the bag or container to measure it out. This will give you a dense, packed measurement of flour which could end up being too much flour and make your goodies dry. A lot of baking recipes use weighted measurements like ounces and grams so that this doesn't happen. You get a much more standard product every time you make it.
Now, preheat your oven to 375°F.
Put your softened butter into the mixer and crank that baby on high. I like to really whip that butter up to make sure that there are no hard pieces. Stop the mixer, scrape the sides and give it one more round. Next, add both the brown and white sugar. (Brown sugar should always be packed down into the measuring cups.) Mix the sugars and butter together for a couple of minutes. You really want the mixture to get creamy and fluffy. Next add the eggs, one at a time. Make sure to scrape down the bowl of your mixer so that all ingredients are getting properly mixed. Now add the vanilla. There are some great baking vanillas out there. I even have some friends that make their own, its not that hard, so that might be an adventure one day.
Make sure that you have sifted your dry ingredients (Flour, Salt, Baking Soda). For baking, I use iodized salt unless it specifically calls for another type of salt. Once the dry ingredients are sifted, add half to the mixer and combine. Add the rest of the dry ingredients into the mixer. Mix until just combined. Do not over mix your dough as it will result in gluten development making your baked goods tough, dense or chewy when you don't want them to be.
Add in the semi-sweet chocolate chips and toffee pieces. Double check the toffee pieces bag as apparently they have two different kinds. One that just toffee pieces and one that's the chocolate covered toffee pieces. Now it doesn't make a huge difference, but I was glad that I noticed it. I mix the chips and toffee in with the mixer. I tried by hand, but this is some thick dough. So just use the mixer and save yourself the extra work.
Scoop the dough into an ungreased 9 x 13 inch baking pan. There is no need to grease or spray the pan, the butter in this dough does the trick. Flatten the dough down so that it is even across the pan. I used a wood spoon for this and it worked out quite nicely. You could also put a little butter on your hand and smooth it out that way. Just depends on how much you want to connect with your baked goods I guess.
Put the pan into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. Just so that the top is golden brown. If you shake the pan, it might not look like the bar is done baking, but it will continue to cook once you take it out of the oven for a little bit and once it cools, it will be set.
Once its cooled, I flipped it upside down to have it come out of the pan in one piece. I try not to have to cut directly into my baking pans if at all possible. That doesn't always work in my favor though. Now you can cut them as big or as small as you like. I typically do 4 x 6 when cutting. 4 pieces on the short side and 6 pieces on the long side, giving you a total of 24 bars.
These bars pair well with a nice glass of cold milk, some fresh morning coffee, topped with ice cream and well, basically anything. I suggest having a place to take them if you don't want the temptation of them staring at you all day. I don't have any self control when it comes to anything chocolate, really anything sweet. My sweet tooth is HUGE.
Chocolate Toffee Bars
Makes 24 servings
Ingredients
1 C Butter, Unsalted, softened
1 C Brown Sugar
2/3 C White Sugar
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
2 2/3 C Flour
2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt, iodized
1-12 oz package Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
1-8 oz package Health Toffee Pieces
Directions
1) Preheat oven to 375°F
2) Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy.
3) Add eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl to make sure that everything is incorporated.
4) Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add sifted dry ingredients to mixer. Break it down into two additions to the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
5) Add in Chocolate Chips & Toffee pieces. Mix until combined.
6) Place dough into 9 x 13" baking pan.
7) Bake for 25-30 minutes or until top is golden brown.
8) Cool before cutting.
9) Try not to eat the whole pan.
Let me know if you tried them out. I would love to hear the feedback of how they tasted.
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