Crisp Toffee Chocolate Bars
Makes 16 Bars
If you like a shortbread-type cookie, you’ll like this “chocolate chip” version. It’s caramel-flavored thanks to the brown sugar, buttery (here’s where you might splurge on premium butter and chocolate), and has a great salty-sweet balance. And it’s fast: pressing dough into a pan takes a lot less time and labor than individual dropped cookies. Plus, if your butter is soft enough, nothing more than a bowl and spoon are needed to make this. The trick is to cut the cookies into squares while they are still hot.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened, plus more for the pan
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 x 13-inch glass baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Add the flour and mix well to combine. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips.
3. Press the dough into the prepared pan. Bake until golden and set, about 20 minutes. Cut into even squares while still warm.
cook's note
Chocolate: Dark, bittersweet, and semisweet chocolate can generally be interchanged in a recipe like this, as they all must contain at least 35 percent cacao. But the taste will be slightly different depending on whether you like a slightly bitter flavor or a sweeter one. I’ve opted for sweeter here.
pantry
Need help with the ingredients? Check our pantry list: