Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars

When I was a Girl Scout leader (my daughter of course was in the troop), I made these cookies for my girls on a regular basis.  When they became senior girl scouts (now called Ambassador girl scouts)  in high school , they  would ask me to make them.  The cookies were always a hit.  But I haven’t made them in about 8 years.  To me, they were cookies just for my Girl Scouts.

I decided to give them a try again when I had my knitting club over. I had completely forgotten how good they were.   Chocolaty, chewy and somewhat crispy all at the same time.  And they keep really well for about a week at room temperature.  Freeze them if you want to extend the time.

Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars (adapted from Hershey’s Rich Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars)

2-1/3 cups flour

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes

1 egg, beaten lightly

12  ounces of Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, divided

1, 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

10 ounces Heath Bits ‘O Brickle Toffee Bits, divided

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with canola cooking spray.

In a large bowl, place the flour, brown sugar, butter cubes and mix with beater or beaters until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add egg and mix well.  Add 1-1/2 cups of chocolate chips and stir until distributed evenly.  Set aside 1-1/2 cups of the mixture.  Press remaining crumb mixture into bottom of prepared pan.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over hot crust.  Top evenly with 1-1/2 cups of Toffee bits.  Sprinkle reserved 1-1/2 cups of crumb mixture and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips over top.  Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of Toffee Bits on top.

Cool completely and I mean completely, on a wire rack until the pan is cool to the touch.  If you do not let them cool completely, they will be a complete mess to cut.  Believe me I have tried this when I was in a hurry.  Not worth it.

Take a dull knife and loosen the cookie all around the edge.

Invert over a cutting board.

Invert over another cutting board so the top is up.

Cut into small squares or rectangles.

crumb mixture:

chocolate chips added:

crumb mixture pressed into bottom of prepared pan:

rest of the ingredients ready to go:

crust after 10 minutes in oven:

sweetened condensed milk poured over top:

then toffee bits:

reserved crumb mixture and the rest of the chocolate chips:

out of the oven:

cooled thoroughly and ready to cut: