Brown Sugar Toffee Bars

I had built up a fair number of recipes to post but I was getting to the point where I needed to start baking some treats! It starts to get hard this time of year when there are many commitments, weekend trips away, and that sort of thing, so I rely on having some recipes ready to go. I have a lot of recipes planned, but then figure I will change this thing or that, which makes deciding what to bake a bit more challenging.

These bars don’t call for much that is different, but does require rice flour. I didn’t have that on hand, and I was surprised at how difficult that was to find at some grocery stores! There are different types of rice flour, and they do vary so that was more complex. Since I needed such a small quantity, I ended up going to the local organic/community market and they had rice flour in their bulk section, which was exactly what I needed. The rice flour gives the shortbread base that classic sandy texture.

When you bake these bars, the shortbread is thin, but I didn’t have any trouble covering the base of the pan. I have had much more difficulty with other recipes! I do think I baked the shortbread base a bit too long, and likely should have taken it out of the oven after 25 minutes. As a result, my bars are quite crunchy. They taste wonderful, but they do have that crunch!

Brown Sugar Toffee Bars
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ tsp almond extract
1½ cups flour
½ cup rice flour
¼ tsp salt
12 ounces chocolate chips
4 ounces sliced almonds, finely chopped

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Beat the butter on medium in the bowl of a mixer for 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar and beat on medium until light. Add the almond extract and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, rice flour, and salt. Press the dough in a thin layer into the prepared pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until firm along the edges. (Keep the oven on.)

Once you have removed the shortbread from the oven, immediately sprinkle the chocolate chips in an even layer over the bars. Return the bars to the oven for 3 minutes.

Remove the bars from the oven and spread the chocolate into a smooth layer. Sprinkle the bars with chopped almonds.

Allow the bars to completely cool before cutting into bars. It helps to refrigerate the bars right before cutting.

Recipe from Sweet Recipeas