Company Worthy Bars With Little Effort

The other day I spent some time visiting some of the blogs in my sidebar.  I don’t do that near often enough, and I had some spare time, so I puttered about checking out how some of my favorite bloggers are doing.   When I saw this great big photo of this great big bar pop up over at Rah Cha Chow,  I swear my heart skipped a beat.

What was this thing staring at me on the computer screen?  I wanted to know more about it- and even more- I needed to know what it tasted like.  I quickly scanned Tracy’s write-up, saw the words “shortbread” and “magic cookie bars” and “sweetened condensed milk”  and I had no choice whatsoever.  These bars were going in my oven ASAP.

My printer spat out a printed form of the recipe, and away to the kitchen I flew, mentally checking off the things I had on hand- I suspected I had everything I needed if I made a few substitutions.  While Tracy recommended dark chocolate, an assessment of my pantry indicated that I had a selection of white, milk, and semi-sweet.  Not one to favor one particular type of chip, I threw a few handfuls of each into a bowl and mixed them up.  Voila- three chips instead of one.  When I looked in on the nut situation, I had to pause.  I had whole almonds, macadamia nuts and peanuts.  The peanuts I immediately discarded the notion of using.  But I went back and forth between the almonds and the macadamias.  I had picked up the macadamias to make some cookies specifically for someone, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.  I thought the almonds would be good- but I really like snacking on those out of hand… Macadamia nuts won, so I dumped some out onto a cutting board and chopped them up.

These bars came together so easy!  I combined flour, brown sugar and a pinch of salt (not in the recipe, but it felt right) and then cut in my butter.  When I had no discernible chunks of butter left, I added the egg.  The texture remained loose and I puzzled over whether or not the recipe was missing anything- but I proceeded ahead full steam anyway.  I added my chips and nuts, gave it all a toss, and then removed 1 1/2 cups for later on.  The remainder was dumped into a 13 x 9 pan which had been well- sprayed with cooking spray. (Important.  Don’t skip the greasing of the pan part.)  I pressed the mixture evenly with my hands so I had a shortbread crust and popped it in the oven.

After just ten minutes, the crust came out where it received a bath from 1 can of sweetened condensed milk. (Well, maybe a teaspoon or two less than a full can. Mmm.) Toffee bits followed the condensed milk, and then the remaining crumbly mixture was sprinkled over the top before the whole thing went back in the oven.  Where it then proceeded to taunt and tantalize for the next 35 minutes, until it was golden brown and pronounced done.

Then the long, excruciating wait began for it to cool down enough to sample.  And sample, we did.   Delicious.  Slightly chewy, slightly shortbready (is that a word) and full of chocolaty nibbles and buttery macadamia nut goodness.  Company loved it, we loved it, and two days later they are still delicious.  I doubt we’ll find out if they’re still good the third day out, but I can imagine they might be.

Make these.  You won’t be sorry. The recipe is compliments of Hershey.com.

Rich Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine

1 egg, slightly beaten

2 cups (12 oz. pkg.) dark or bittersweet chocolate chips, divided

1 cup coarsely chopped nuts

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

1-1/3 cups (8 oz. pkg.) toffee bits, divided

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

Combine flour and brown sugar in large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add egg; mix well. Stir in 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips and nuts; set aside 1-1/2 cups mixture.

Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 10 minutes.

Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over hot crust; set aside 1/4 cup toffee bits. Sprinkle remaining toffee bits over sweetened condensed milk. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture and remaining 1/2 cup chips over top.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Top with reserved toffee bits. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. About 48 bars.