Hi! As some of you may know I recently started a project to bake my way through my Grandma’s recipes, and these Crisp Toffee Bars were next on my list. When I was looking at the recipe I wasn’t really sure what to expect…they don’t have any eggs or baking soda so I knew they had to be different than just cookie bars, but I knew they weren’t going to be exactly like toffee.
So after they came out of the oven I was surprised to find that they basically turned out exactly like their name said – they are crisp cookie bars that taste like toffee. They are kind of like crunchy shortbread cookies and would taste really good with a scoop of ice cream or maybe dipped in hot chocolate around a campfire 😊.
The only tricky thing about these is that you have to cut them while they are warm or they will get too crispy and they won’t cut evenly (or if you forget and wait too long like me you can just embrace unevenly cut bars and pretend you were just being artistic…)😉
A few other things to note about this recipe – when you add the flour to your wet mixture, you’ll notice that the dough may seem a little drier than normal cookie dough and this is how it is supposed to be so that the bars turn out nice and crisp. When I first put the flour in I had a little moment of panic that maybe I’d added too much – the dough kind of reminded me of what a streusel topping looks like before you bake it – but as soon as I pressed it into the baking sheet I knew it was going to be fine.
Also, it may not seem like you have enough dough when you first put it on the baking sheet, but they are meant to be thinner bars, so if you use your fingers to press it out to the corners, it should fill up the whole pan. And since they are thinner, you’ll want to make sure you don’t over bake them and pull them out right at 25 minutes or when they start to turn brown.
I personally am more of a chewy/doughy cookie fan more than a crispy cookie fan, but I do love toffee and I loved the taste of these bars. I even froze the leftovers after I made them and they even taste really great right out of the freezer.
Thanks for coming to get this recipe! I hope you enjoy making these toffee bars. I feel like this must have been a recipe my Grandma probably made when she had a crowd to feed, which was probably quite often, since she had seven kids.
Sometimes since it’s just my husband and I right now I do dream about those days when I’ll have a busy house and actually have a crowd to feed…and then I’ll probably look back and wish it was just my husband and I again because that’s how life goes right? The grass is always greener, we always want what we don’t have and never appreciate what we do when we have it.
A few years ago, when it first started to become clear that my husband and I weren’t going to have an easy time getting pregnant, I think the hardest thing was that my future was suddenly starting to look very foggy and unpredictable and that my life wasn’t going to go like I’d planned out. I worried a lot about what our lives would be like in the far future.
What if we never have kids?
What if we are going to be eternally stuck as that awkward childless couple that shows up to the family parties and watches everyone else with their kids?
What if we try to adopt and it doesn’t work out?
What if we do IVF and it doesn’t work?
What if we get old and no one takes care of us because we have no kids??
What if we never have kids and I never do anything else worthwhile with my life??
I do still worry about these things sometimes, but I think I’m doing better at appreciating what I have right now. My husband and I are really happy with the way our life is right now and I’m trying to do better at enjoying it. I’m trying to have less expectations for the future and just simply hope.
And I’ve realized in the past couple months that even if those hopes don’t come true, I’ll still be ok. My value doesn’t come from being a mother, or having a successful career, or being wealthy or famous or popular or any of the other things our society seems to glorify these days. My value comes from being a human being that’s here on the earth to learn.
So as long as I just keep trying to learn I think I’ll be just fine :).
Thanks for stopping by! If you’d like to follow our journey of making these recipes you can follow us on Instagram @daisyfarmkitchen!
xo, Hannah
Crisp Toffee Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter or margarine
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
Thoroughly cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add flour, mix well. Stir in chips and nuts. Press mixture into ungreased jelly roll pan. Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes or until slightly browned. While warm, cut into bars or squares. Cool before removing from pan.
