Chocolate Toffee Shortbread bars

One of the ‘difficult’ things about having a food blog is when you bake something to give away you need to make sure you have time to photograph and taste each item that you bake before its gone.   I made these chocolate toffee shortbread bars and the chocolate needed to harden before I could cut/photograph them.   So I had to wait until the next morning to do that. 

Nothing like being a little late for work just to get a photo of these delicious beauties.   Completely worth the extra step in my morning routine to get some photos of these. 

The best part was sneaking one (or two) of these in my lunch for the day   Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the shortbread base:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 5 Tbsp. mini chocolate chips

For the topping:

• 6 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups toffee bits or chopped toffee bars

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.  Line a 9 x 13" baking dish with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. 

2. To make the shortbread: combine the flour, salt and cinnamon in a small bowl; stir to blend and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugars and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Blend in the vanilla.  With the mixer on low speed, beat in the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Stir in the mini chocolate chips until evenly distributed. 

3. Transfer the dough to the prepared baking dish and press into an even layer covering the bottom of the pan.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the shortbread is bubbling.  Remove the pan from the oven and transfer to a wire rack.

4. Sprinkle the 6 ounces of chocolate chips evenly over the top of the cookie base.  Cover the pan with foil and let sit for 5 minutes.  Remove the foil and use an offset spatula to spread the melted chocolate evenly over the crust in a thin layer.  Immediately sprinkle the toffee bits over the melted chocolate and press down gently to adhere. 

5. Let the bars cool to room temperature.  When the topping is set, remove from the pan, transfer to a cutting board and slice into bars.

Source: Annie’s Eats

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