Toffee Bars
It's time for the annual baking of the cookies. Whether our winter holiday is Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule, a birthday, an anniversary or simply a succession of parties from tree trimmings with friends to office to-dos, diets have a way of falling by the wayside for the next couple of weeks. At work, not a day goes by without boxes of candy from holiday gift baskets being set out for everyone to swear off of followed by sneaking back for a sample. Bake sales enliven vestibules everywhere from the high school to the public library, each featuring a dozen local specialties that no one, least of all the sales staff, can resist. Even the local coffeehouse gets in on the act by pumping up the action in the glass case, knowing full well that when we stop in for a caffeine shot we will give ourselves permission to indulge in a sugar booster as well.
Something about this time of year inspires -- maybe a better word is impels -- even those with a non-domestic orientation to spend some time in the kitchen with the mixing bowls and cookie sheets. House specialties are delivered from ovens: drop cookies snappy with ginger or melty with chocolate chips, rolled cookies springy with egg white or sticky with jam, layered cookies hefty with coconut custard or just plain tipsy with Amaretto. This year, I am planning to bake lemon wafers, atingle with candied lemon peel and dusted with citron-tinted sanding sugar; fruitcake bars that allow lovers of old fashioned treats like myself a controversial bite without having to manage the substantial puck that is the butt of so many unfair jokes this time of year; even a couple of batches of Urban Home's blue ribbon peanut butter cookies.
No cookie is friendlier to the holiday baker than the bar cookie. Bar cookies allow for efficient baking, which can be a godsend during times as busy as the holidays get. I write a lot about bar cookies. Back in my Slashfood days, I shared my recipe for white chocolate brownies. For Urban Home's master recipe for bar cookies, click on the recipe for apricot bars. If you wish, substitute the apricot filling for the fruit filling of your choice: orange, cranberry and mincemeat are all appropriate for this time of year. May I also suggest chewy toffee bars? The recipe is below for these bar cookies, in which a decadent four-way of chocolate, toffee, butterscotch and nuts comingles atop a shortbread mattress. Not only are these cookies delicious, they are easy and economical to make from simple supermarket ingredients.
Whatever the house favorite, pull out all the stops. Make as many batches and varieties as you have time and inclination for. There really is no better companion for busy December days than a plate of homemade cookies. They will accompany the hot coffee and the chatter as you wrap presents, address cards or trim the tree with family, friends and neighbors. They will make you the most popular person of the day at work. They will sit with you as you bask in the black and white orbit of Edmund Gwenn or the wassailing quaver of Bing Crosby. And calories be damned -- we all know we're going to go on diets in January anyway.
TOFFEE BARS
A bar cookie pan is a good investment for your urban kitchen, even if you only use it a couple of times a year. Haeger has a good one; it is easy to care for and inexpensive enough that you could get two, so that the second batch is in process while the first is in the oven.
For the cookie
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon table salt
Non-stick cooking spray
For the topping
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup toffee chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
3/4 cup chopped hazelnuts, almonds or pistachios
1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl to soften. Measure the sugars, cinnamon and salt into the bowl containing the butter.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Line a bar cookie pan or 13-inch rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, shiny side up. Spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Once the butter is soft enough to be workable, use a handheld mixer on medium high to thoroughly incorporate the butter and dry ingredients together.
5. Hold an egg separator over a cup and break the egg over the separator, catching the yolk in the separator and letting the white fall into the cup. Cover the white and refrigerate for another use.
6. Add the egg yolk to the butter-sugar mixture in the bowl. Measure the vanilla into the bowl.
7. Use the mixer to incorporate all of the cookie ingredients just until a stiff, almost dry dough forms.
8. Use a silicon scraper to transfer the cookie dough to the prepared baking pan. Moisten your hands and pat the dough in an even layer across the baking pan.
9. Transfer the baking pan to the oven. Bake just until set and light golden brown, approximately 10 minutes.
10. While the cookie is baking, measure the chocolate, toffee and butterscotch chips into a bowl. Measure the nuts into the bowl. Mix the topping ingredients together.
11. After 10 minutes, remove the cookie from the oven and place it on the stovetop.
12. Gently distribute the topping mixture across the top of the cookie. It is okay if some of the chips start melting as you work.
13. Once you have distributed the topping across the top of the cookie, place the pan back in the oven.
14. Bake bars until topping just until topping is melted, approximately 10 minutes.
15. Remove the bar cookie from the oven and place on a wire rack or double layer of kitchen towels to cool, approximately 20 minutes.
16. Once cooled, use a sharp knife to cut the cookie into squares. Cut in a straight line down the center of the long side of the cookie, then cut each long half in half in a straight line. Cut across the quarters on the short side to form one- or two-inch squares.
17. Transfer the toffee squares to a plate and serve. If tightly wrapped, toffee bars will keep up to a week, but they won't last that long.
Something about this time of year inspires -- maybe a better word is impels -- even those with a non-domestic orientation to spend some time in the kitchen with the mixing bowls and cookie sheets. House specialties are delivered from ovens: drop cookies snappy with ginger or melty with chocolate chips, rolled cookies springy with egg white or sticky with jam, layered cookies hefty with coconut custard or just plain tipsy with Amaretto. This year, I am planning to bake lemon wafers, atingle with candied lemon peel and dusted with citron-tinted sanding sugar; fruitcake bars that allow lovers of old fashioned treats like myself a controversial bite without having to manage the substantial puck that is the butt of so many unfair jokes this time of year; even a couple of batches of Urban Home's blue ribbon peanut butter cookies.
No cookie is friendlier to the holiday baker than the bar cookie. Bar cookies allow for efficient baking, which can be a godsend during times as busy as the holidays get. I write a lot about bar cookies. Back in my Slashfood days, I shared my recipe for white chocolate brownies. For Urban Home's master recipe for bar cookies, click on the recipe for apricot bars. If you wish, substitute the apricot filling for the fruit filling of your choice: orange, cranberry and mincemeat are all appropriate for this time of year. May I also suggest chewy toffee bars? The recipe is below for these bar cookies, in which a decadent four-way of chocolate, toffee, butterscotch and nuts comingles atop a shortbread mattress. Not only are these cookies delicious, they are easy and economical to make from simple supermarket ingredients.
Whatever the house favorite, pull out all the stops. Make as many batches and varieties as you have time and inclination for. There really is no better companion for busy December days than a plate of homemade cookies. They will accompany the hot coffee and the chatter as you wrap presents, address cards or trim the tree with family, friends and neighbors. They will make you the most popular person of the day at work. They will sit with you as you bask in the black and white orbit of Edmund Gwenn or the wassailing quaver of Bing Crosby. And calories be damned -- we all know we're going to go on diets in January anyway.
TOFFEE BARS
A bar cookie pan is a good investment for your urban kitchen, even if you only use it a couple of times a year. Haeger has a good one; it is easy to care for and inexpensive enough that you could get two, so that the second batch is in process while the first is in the oven.
For the cookie
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon table salt
Non-stick cooking spray
For the topping
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup toffee chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
3/4 cup chopped hazelnuts, almonds or pistachios
1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl to soften. Measure the sugars, cinnamon and salt into the bowl containing the butter.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Line a bar cookie pan or 13-inch rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, shiny side up. Spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Once the butter is soft enough to be workable, use a handheld mixer on medium high to thoroughly incorporate the butter and dry ingredients together.
5. Hold an egg separator over a cup and break the egg over the separator, catching the yolk in the separator and letting the white fall into the cup. Cover the white and refrigerate for another use.
6. Add the egg yolk to the butter-sugar mixture in the bowl. Measure the vanilla into the bowl.
7. Use the mixer to incorporate all of the cookie ingredients just until a stiff, almost dry dough forms.
8. Use a silicon scraper to transfer the cookie dough to the prepared baking pan. Moisten your hands and pat the dough in an even layer across the baking pan.
9. Transfer the baking pan to the oven. Bake just until set and light golden brown, approximately 10 minutes.
10. While the cookie is baking, measure the chocolate, toffee and butterscotch chips into a bowl. Measure the nuts into the bowl. Mix the topping ingredients together.
11. After 10 minutes, remove the cookie from the oven and place it on the stovetop.
12. Gently distribute the topping mixture across the top of the cookie. It is okay if some of the chips start melting as you work.
13. Once you have distributed the topping across the top of the cookie, place the pan back in the oven.
14. Bake bars until topping just until topping is melted, approximately 10 minutes.
15. Remove the bar cookie from the oven and place on a wire rack or double layer of kitchen towels to cool, approximately 20 minutes.
16. Once cooled, use a sharp knife to cut the cookie into squares. Cut in a straight line down the center of the long side of the cookie, then cut each long half in half in a straight line. Cut across the quarters on the short side to form one- or two-inch squares.
17. Transfer the toffee squares to a plate and serve. If tightly wrapped, toffee bars will keep up to a week, but they won't last that long.
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