Showing posts with label toffee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toffee. Show all posts

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Oatmeal Toffee Bars

The first time I saw these bars was on Megan’s Cookin’ and they were loaded with chocolate chips.  A week or so later they popped up on my radar again when April lightened them up.  After seeing them a second time I couldn’t resist making some, especially knowing that my oatmeal cookie lovin’ son, Jalen would be thrilled.  Cookies aren’t happen here so this is a win-win recipe. 

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This is a super easy recipe that doesn’t require any advanced planning as there’s no butter to soften.   Besides my obvious change of leaving out the chocolate chips and subbing in toffee pieces I used all purpose flour instead of whole wheat.  These baked up perfectly in 17 minutes which was actually faster than it took me to clean up.

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While very good on their own these bars were fantastic heated up with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. So good in fact, I might have eaten one just like that for breakfast.  Hey, it’s like oatmeal made with milk only not. :)

Oatmeal Toffee Bars (printable recipe)

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons skim milk (I used 2%)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used coarse sea salt)*
  • 3 cups of old-fashioned oats (I ran out and used a packet of instant)
  • 1 3/4 cups whole-wheat flour (I used all purpose)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I added one bag of Heath’s toffee pieces.)
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut (I omitted)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, and salt. Beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until the sugars have dissolved.

In a separate bowl, combine old-fashioned oats, flour, baking soda, coconut, and chocolate chips. Stir until just combined. Add to liquid mixture and stir until combined.  The batter will be cookie dough thick.  Transfer it into a lightly greased 13×9 inch baking pan.  Once transferred I found it easiest to spread the batter into the corners with my dampened fingers.

Bake 15-20 minutes until golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool until firm. Cut into squares and store tightly covered.

*Note:  If you’re a fan of salty sweet (Michelle!) I’d up the salt to maybe 3/4 tsp.  On my last square I sprinkled some coarse sea salt on top and it was delish!

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Saturday, January 10, 2009

New Year's Eve goodies

I volunteered to make desserts for a New Year's Eve party we were attending at a neighbor's house.  For me that was rather daring as I'm very leery about making anything to bring to an adult function.  I have found that adults are much more critical and down right picky.  On the other hand I LOOOOOVE baking for my children, their friends and teammates.  Everything I bake for them is always well received and if someone doesn't like something (rare) they are always very polite when telling me so!  By the end of the night everything was gobbled up which I'll take as a sign of success!

The first dessert I made was one the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Bars which I blogged about earlier this week. 

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The next dessert I made was one I found over on My Baking Addiction.  Jamie made her Chocolate Toffee Trifle in stemless wine glasses which I thought would translate well into minis. I figured after eating and drinking so much no one would have room for a full sized dessert.  Also if everything was bite sized it would be easier for everyone to try a bite of all three desserts with limited waste.  My minis were good in theory but in practice, I was beat and didn't have the patience to pipe everything into my shot glasses.  Instead they got the trifle in a large trifle bowl...self serve style!

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Have I admitted to not really liking "plain" brownies or chocolate pudding? Have I also mentioned that for me cool whip and toffee are just okay BUT in this dessert something magical happens with these ingredients!  I couldn't get enough (didn't want to look like a piggy) of it.  I loved the the various textures and the taste of everything combined!

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The last dessert I made was one I found on the inside of the wrapper of Ghirardelli's white chocolate bars.  On the wrapper it was called Ghirardelli Classic White Blondies. I found the recipe online under the name Classic Blondies.  Which ever name you chose to call it by it was very good and was the first to go.  (I think it helped that you didn't need any serving utensils, plate, or napkin!) It's texture was more cakey than fudgey (sp?) but not overly so as I have found that I don't care for cakey blondies or brownies.  I didn't make any changes to the recipe other than baking mine in a 11x7 inch pan.  I also lined it with nonstick foil before greasing it.

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Here's a photo of the three desserts displayed in all their glory (ha-ha)!  The food wasn't  set out yet  so the table looks kinda bland but once they placed the food, the table looked very nice.

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