Almond Toffee Bars

Apparently, these are good.  I'm not being passive aggressive, but I didn't realize until I tried these that I'm not particularly fond of toffee.  And apparently neither is Dave.  They aren't bad and I did eat a whole bar, but I just wouldn't reach for this flavor necessarily.  But, they got rave reviews when I took them into work, so I'm listening to my audience.

I randomly picked this recipe from the Betty Crocker website when searching for a bar recipe to bring into work for a morning meeting.  I wanted something with enough "breakfast" overtones that it wouldn't turn everyone off at 9:30 in the morning, but also something that would transcend the rest of the day as leftover snacks.  This worked.  I did use a different size pan. (Who has this elusive 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan?)

Almond Toffee Bars

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups almonds, coarsely chopped
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, beat 3/4 cup butter and granulated sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl as necessary.  Beat in egg.

Beat in flour on low speed (especially if you didn't change out the beater attachment like I did).  The dough will be relatively crumbly, (like the Cinnamon Bars) but I should have switched to the paddle attachment because I find the beater breaks up the dough into finer crumbs and it doesn't the consistency I want.  I ended up adding a splash (less than a Tablespoon) of milk just to get it to come together.
 

Grease bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 inch pan.  Press dough evenly into pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 13-18 minutes (I did 15 minutes) or until edges are light golden brown.

Yes, I realize there is little difference in the before and after baking pictures. These are slightly browned, though.

At this point, if you're like me, you'll realize that you only have a 1/2 cup of butter left and will bat your eyelashes at your husband until he goes and gets more butter.  If you're not like me, you would have read the recipe correctly and have enough ingredients.  (Thank goodness we live less than a mile from the grocery store.)

While you're waiting for the butter to arrive, coarsely chop almonds.

When butter magically appears (thank you, honey!), in a heavy sauce pan, heat 1 cup of butter, brown sugar and corn syrup to boiling over medium hear, stirring frequently.

Boil 2 minutes without stirring.

Quickly stir in almonds.

Spread over baked layer. (Would you believe I was able to time all this so the baked layer came out of the oven just as I was done stirring in the almonds?) 

Bake 15-20 minutes or until dark golden brown and bubbling (16 minutes worked for me).

Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the hot bars.

Let stand for 5 minutes and when the chips are slightly melty, gently swirl the chocolate over the bars with a spatula.

Let cool completely, about 30 minutes.  Cut into squares (5 x 6 rows).  The chocolate will still be soft, so you may want to let them set up longer.

Makes 30 bars.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

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