Buttery Toffee Cookies

Buttery Toffee Cookies - made dough May 30, 2012, baking off as needed, recipe from Land O Lakes Cookies

I have some social gatherings coming up and I needed something on hand that I can bake off the night before so I have fresh baked goods to bring while still being mindful I only have a limited time after work to get it all baked, cooled and packaged up.  The perfect solution is making cookie dough ahead of time, freezing it and baking it the night before you need it.  Word of caution: after you mix the dough, portion it out into dough balls, then freeze it.  Do not freeze the whole thing in one block then try to chip bits off a frozen block of cookie dough to bake.  I know that sounds obvious but I've had a couple of friends freeze the whole bowl of cookie dough.  They can (facepalm) tell you it's much harder to scoop out balls of dough when it's frozen than when it's newly made.  Just sayin'......

The recipe said this makes 4 dozen cookies.  Ha.  I don't know what size cookies they were referring to because my regular-size ice cream scoop made 14 cookies from 1 batch of dough, not 48.  I liked this cookie.  It wasn't too sweet and although it was cakier than I normally like my cookies, it actually made for a nice texture to go with the toffee.  If you want a purely non-chocolate option, go with the toffee bits rather than chopped-up, chocolate-coated toffee.  I don't know that I would add chocolate chips to this dough though because the cookie itself is so subtly flavored that chocolate chips might actually overwhelm it.  It doesn't have the brown sugar or butterscotch flavor typically associated with chocolate chip cookies but if you want a plain vanilla or butter cookie, this is a good option.  As always, don't overbake them or they'll be dry.  You want to bake them just long enough for the edges to be golden and the middles to just barely not look raw.  If the middles look "done", then they're overbaked.

½ cup sugar

½ cup butter, softened

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

4 (1.4-ounce) bars chocolate coated toffee, chopped

1.     Heat oven to 350˚F.  In large mixer bowl combine sugar, butter, egg and vanilla.  Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy (3 to 4 minutes).  Reduce speed to low; add flour, baking soda, and salt.  Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes).  By hand, stir in chopped toffee. 

2.     Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.