I live to eat and love to cook. Welcome to my life!

October 26, 2011

Addictive, but in a good way

You know it's good when no less than a half dozen people tell you it's like crack. Dad showed up this morning for our daily walk telling me I should never make them again because they are addictive. Emily had 7 before dinner was even served. And Patty was up until 4:00am because of the sugar rush. Yet every last one of them took a plate home with leftovers and everyone wanted the recipe.

Once again my Dad grew a pumpkin patch and threw a party just because he wanted those pumpkins carved. We had about 20 adults and a dozen kiddos over to the ranch for sloppy Joe's and nibbles and of course....the carving of the pumpkins. The adults helped as always, but these kids had some serious fun delegating what they wanted carved on their pumpkins. :)

Here are some of this years winners!



 

 

I was in charge of at least one dessert and of course had to make something I hadn't done before to test drive on all our friends. I searched and searched online for something new and fun and before long I found it on http://www.melskitchencafe.com/ which is a very fun food blog for any of y'all who like that kind of stuff. :) The only changes I made to Mel's recipe was to make my own toffee bits and leave out the nuts in case of an unknown allergy. I picked up a package of Heath toffee at the store and one of the first ingredients was palm oil...another was artificial flavor and you know how I feel about that!

Warning: These are crazy good and super addictive for those of you with a sweet tooth.

Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars
Adapted from melskitchencafe.com

2 1/3 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, soft
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Toffee Bits
Or you can buy them if you want to, just do 1 package
1 Stick Butter
1 C Sugar
1/4 C Water
1/4 tsp Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9X13-inch pan with aluminum foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Toffee
Put all ingredients in a heavy bottom saucepan and cook on medium heat until it is golden brown. Pour out on to a marble slab or a piece of aluminum foil on a sheet pan. Let cool completely and then shatter in to bits inside a Ziploc bag with a mallet.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and brown sugar. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture is crumbly. Add eggs and mix well with a wooden spoon or your hands. Mix in 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate chips. The mixture will be fairly stiff, so again, you may need to use your hands to get everything combined.

Set aside 1 1/2 cups of the dough. Press the remaining dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the crust. Top with all but 1/4 of the toffee bits. Pinch pieces of the reserved dough and scatter over the top. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Bake for 25-30 more minutes until golden brown. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup toffee bits on top. Cool completely before serving.

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