Toffee Bars from Alice Medrich

Toffee Bars - made January 5, 2023 from Cookies and Brownies by Alice Medrich 

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

Topping

6 ounces or 1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped almonds, lightly toasted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a heavy saucepan, melt butter. Add brown sugar and whisk until combined. Stir in vanilla and salt then flour until combined.
3. Spread in an even layer in prepared pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes until well browned at the edges and middle is golden brown.
4. Sprinkle even layer of chocolate chips and return to oven for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from oven and spread softened chocolate into an even layer of topping. Sprinkle toasted almonds evenly over melted chocolate. Cool completely before cutting and serving.

When I made these bars, I thought the "toffee" just referred to the combination of a brown sugar shortbread base supporting a chocolate layer topped with chopped nuts but not actual toffee.

I was pleasantly if unexpectedly surprised to be wrong. This really is like toffee down to the crunch of the base. It's almost like an Almond Roca in bar form. 

The reason I didn't expect that is because of the flour in the shortbread base so I expected, well, shortbread. It's not even shortbread texture really but actually like toffee buttercrunch.

No complaints here as I love toffee but rarely make real toffee as I don't want to hassle with boiling sugar and water, getting to the right temp, letting it boil long enough and so on. If you don't boil (real) toffee long enough, it's more sticky and tacky with no snap. Boil it too long, it's hard to eat without breaking a tooth.

So here's a cheat version. You still don't want to overbake this or underbake it either. I baked it exactly 25 minutes in my oven and got the toffee-esque crunch.