Toffee shortbread? yeah I can do that.

It's a lovely Friday night in August, and my family is already ready for fall and Christmas. oi. So my step-daughter asks me, " hey Morgan", -its always dubious when the 15 year old is willing to talk to you- "you wanna make Toffee this weekend"? I love to cook, and sugar is crack, so yeah I wanna make toffee this weekend! Plus toffee is one of my hubby's favorites, so how could I say no? So on to Pinterest we went, searching for the perfect toffee recipe. Now here is the thing, my girl is deathly allergic to peanuts, so she is just kinda skittish of nuts in general. The hubby LOVES nuts, so right off the bat, I HAVE to make at least two batches of toffee, one with and one without nuts.  But, lets be honest,  if you are gunna make toffee, which takes all of 10 min, you might as well test your awesome Pinterest skills and make something truly addictive-like TOFFEE SHORTBREAD BARS!  Big shout out out to TASTE OF LIZZY  and LASTING THUMBPRINTS for the delicious looking recipes. 

this girl has skills!

I have added the recipes at the bottom for you to try this as well. By the recipe, this LOOKS really simple.... of course we are making the toffee ourselves instead of buying heath chips. So I had to find a toffee recipe to start with. When you break it down toffee is toffee is toffee, so recipes should be pretty much the same. butter, sugar, salt, a touch of water and vanilla.  The key ingredient? the thing that makes it all OK? A candy thermometer. You gotta have the tools. I have tried to make candy without the thermometer, we all have, don't lie. It just sucks. So accept it, move on and buy the dang Thermometer. The other tool that I would recommend is a silicone mat, once you have them you will never go without. They are as awesome as people make them out to be. I'm sorry, its true. That being said, I couldn't help but try for the classic English Toffee.

right? how good does this look? I know, you're welcome. So this is the challenge. Make three batches of English toffee-yes three , one for daughter, one for hubby, one to turn into the shortbread bars- and then follow through with the shortbread crack bars, and see how the whole shabang turns out.  All while kicking it with the family, going to the fair, and doing our normal weekend routine. 

First I needed to gather my ingredients. With kids this is always tricky, but since there are only like 5 things in this whole recipe it's really not bad, and frankly I had most of this on hand already. I have to make the toffee before I can make the bars, so here we go.

 I have followed the recipe by Lasting Thumbprints. Again, Big shout out. I didn't dry roast the nuts first. sue me. in fact for the toffee I made for the bars, I didn't add nuts at all. I did melt the chocolate on top, but I could have skipped that step too. In the final product, there is so much sweetness, that the chocolate on the toffee is not even noticed. Save a step.  The batch of toffee made enough for the bars, and enough to satisfy the kids and hubby while they waited for the bars. The bars themselves where really easy to make, but the waiting.. oi the waiting. Not for nothing but any recipe where you have to wait for the thing to cool completely just sucks a little. Yes I know that is lame of me to say, and many many recipes require this, but still. Waiting aside, this is a great recipe, they came out beautifully. The time and temp were on the money exact. Since I made the toffee myself instead of buying Heath bits, My daughter and I were a little nervous that I didn't chop the pieces small enough, but they were great. I was even lazy with the chopping of the nuts. Whatever. Still the bars came out PERFECT!
 Here is the toffee recipe: ( I have removed the part about the nuts since this toffee will go into the bars, but for the whole recipe PLEASE feel free to pop on over to Lasting Thumb Prints and get her get inspired by her awesomeness.)

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• ⅛ tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

1. Line small baking sheet or pan with aluminum foil making sure there is at least ½ inch “wall” on the sides.
2. Combine first four ingredients in heavy saucepan over medium heat stirring occasionally. Allow mixture to come to a boil and reach 305 degrees.
3. When mixture reaches 305 degrees, remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
4. Pour mixture into prepared baking sheet.
5. Sprinkle chocolate chips over top of mixture and allow to sit for 2 minutes. Once softened, spread chocolate in even layer. ( or skip it)
6. Place in refrigerator until set. (or leave it on your kitchen counter as I did cause I had no space in the Fridge.)
7. Break toffee into pieces and store in airtight container. (you will need ~ 1+ cup for the bars.)

Once you have made the toffee, you are ready to make the bars. ( no I didn't take a picture of the bar ingredients, y'all know what flour, butter, and sugar look like. )

Before this recipe I really had no idea how easy shortbread was to make. And that its only three ingredients. Really who knew, OK so maybe you all knew,and I am just out of the loop. There are no modifications to this recipe other than maybe more toffee. hehe. 

As you can see they came out horrible, and the house smelled awful. Muhahahaha! It worked! They were great! this recipe is awesome!!!!

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup (8 ounces) Toffee (my family agrees that it could use 1/2 more toffee-fyi)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• Instructions
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  In a medium size bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and melted butter. Press this mixture into the bottom of an 8" square baking pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  (My pan was like 8" x 12"- don't be a weirdo and put this is a huge pan and then complain about the timing of the instructions. But anywhere between 8" square - 9"x13" you can pretty much rely on the results.) Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
  In the same bowl, mix together the toffee bits, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and chopped pecans. Pour this mixture onto the crust. Bake for another 20 minutes until the top is bubbling.
  If desired, melt two squares of Candiquik (Candiquik is split into 16 squares. Use two of these.) in the microwave according to the package directions and drizzle the chocolate over top the baked bars.  ( I don't know what this is, I have never looked for it, but I had a 1/4 of a bag of chips in my pantry so that won)
  Allow the bars to cool completely, then cut them into squares. (hardest part of the recipe-hand to God)
• you're welcome.
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
•