Coffee Toffee Brownies

I have been planning to make these brownies for some time, I even planned ahead and purchased heavy cream. I don’t always have that on hand and I wanted to be prepared. I finally got around to making these, and I am so glad that I did. It was certainly warm in the house when I made them, but they are so tasty that they are worth it!

I followed the recipe as written, but in creating this blog post, I realize that I should have added ½ cup of powdered sugar with the cocoa powder and flour. I write the recipe in a notebook so I don’t have to bring my laptop into the kitchen. I just skipped it, apparently. In eating the brownies, they aren’t lacking sweetness so I am not worried. You can taste the coffee somewhat, but it isn’t overpowering. The main thing is that you don’t want to over bake these.

I was slightly worried that I had over baked the brownies, as the knife came out clean after baking 28 minutes. But they are the perfect level of fudginess, topped with chocolate ganache. They are wonderfully decadent. The toffee chips on top add a touch of crunch, which juxtaposes the richness of the brownie. I can imagine topping these brownies with lots of different ingredients!

Coffee Toffee Brownies
½ cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla 
⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ cup flour
¾ cup chocolate chips
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons espresso powder

¾ cup chocolate chips
¼ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla 
About ⅓ cup toffee bits

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine the melted butter and sugar, stir momentarily with a whisk. Allow the mixture to set for 5 minutes, to help the sugar start to dissolve. After 5 minutes, whisk strongly for about 30 seconds. Add the eggs, water, and vanilla and whisk again for 30 seconds. At this point, you will want to switch to a spatula.

Add the cocoa powder, flour, chocolate chips, salt, and espresso powder to the bowl and stir with a spatula until all the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture is shiny. Spread the batter in the prepared pan, smoothing the top as much as possible.

Bake for 28-30 minutes, until a knife inserted in the brownies comes out almost clean. There may be some fudginess, but there shouldn’t be raw batter. Allow to begin cooling while making the ganache.

In a small microwaveable bowl, combine the chocolate chips, heavy cream, and vanilla. Microwave, stirring every 20 seconds, until the mixture is smooth. I find that you need to heat the mixture briefly, then the chips melt and the ganache comes together as you stir. Top the brownies with the ganache and then sprinkle with toffee chips.

Refrigerate for several hours before cutting.

Recipe from Celebrating Sweets

Cinnamon Toffee Cookies

It’s been a weird week, but I realized that I didn’t have any cookies ready to post this week! One of the great relaxations in my life is baking, and even when the week is weird, I have a great drive to bake! I knew that I wouldn’t want to make a very big batch, since I didn’t have a place to take them. I also needed to find a recipe that did not require a trip to the store, since that wasn’t in the cards.

This recipe fits the bill, well, for the most part. The original recipe called for toffee bits with chocolate. I’m not really sure why, as there is no other chocolate in this recipe. I use chocolate and non-chocolate toffee chips interchangeably.  I had non-chocolate toffee bits, so I used those. Also, I thought that a cinnamon toffee cookie that didn’t contain cinnamon chips was just wrong. I decided to add those.

This dough is easy to make, and I am glad that I changed the recipe slightly to add the cinnamon chips. I started baking these at the requested 8 minutes, but they were nowhere near fully baked, so I added more time. I found that 11 minutes worked for me, but every oven is different. When I topped the hot cookies with toffee bits, they went everywhere! Pressing the toffee bits into the top of the cookies made an indentation and that helped so much. These have a great buttery cinnamon sugar flavor, and the extra toffee bits on top add an extra crunch.

Cinnamon Toffee Cookies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
½ cup cinnamon chips
¾ cup toffee bits
Toffee bits plus more for topping

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.  

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla. Beat on medium until creamy. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. When the dough is almost completely together, stir in the cinnamon chips and toffee bits.

 Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 9-12 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, press additional toffee bits into the tops of cookies. Allow the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from I Dig Pinterest

Cashew Toffee Cookies

After making the toffee cashew cookies and then a gluten free variation, I realized that both versions contained chocolate! I needed to make a chocolate free version, and I wasn’t sure quite what to do. I could have made the browned butter toffee cashew cookies and left out the chocolate chips, but I did have this recipe that didn’t call for chocolate, so I went with this one. I didn’t have quite a full cup of cashews and probably didn’t have quite enough toffee bits, but it was close. For the chocolate-free version, make sure you use the toffee bits that don’t have chocolate (usually called English toffee bits).

These again were easy to make, and the slight variation in the quantity of cashews and toffee bits didn’t seem to make a difference. I have never made a recipe that called for 1-1/8 cups flour, so that was certainly different. The recipe asks that you refrigerate the dough for several hours or overnight, and I didn’t have time to do that. I chilled the dough for about an hour, and hoped for the best.

My cookies did brown a bit more than expected and they spread some, which I think is likely because they didn’t get as chilled as they needed to be. I have thought of making another batch, refrigerating the dough more appropriately, but I’m not sure I will get to that. Probably not! While I would have liked these to look a little better, the flavors were lovely and it’s hard to go wrong with cashews and toffee, and you don’t notice at all that there’s no chocolate.

Cashew Toffee Cookies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 1/8 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup toffee bits
1 cup chopped cashews

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar. Mix on medium until light, then stir in the vanilla and egg. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold in the toffee bits and chopped cashews with a spatula.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Using a cookie scoop, scoop the dough into the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden. Cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Small Town Woman

Browned Butter Toffee Cashew Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s back to school time and for our opening meeting at work I try to make different cookies that fit different dietary restrictions. These cookies are the original inspiration, full of dairy, gluten, and chocolate. As this was the starting point, I also made a gluten free cookie that was somewhat similar. I felt so accomplished having made two types of cookies, and then I realized I needed a chocolate-free cookie, so I made a cookie similar to this one with no chocolate.

These cookies are also inspired by my lack of chocolate chip cookie making. My husband complains about this, and there are only so many variations of a chocolate chip cookie that I can come up with. These are different, with the browned butter, and the addition of cashews and toffee chips. I’m never sure if browning the butter changes the flavor a lot, but I think it does. As always, watch your butter carefully when it is on the stove, as it can burn easily.

These cookies aren’t so different from chocolate chip cookies, and browning the butter is the only step that takes a touch longer. There’s no chilling, which is helpful when you are making several different varieties! I used toffee chips that contained chocolate, as they also contained chocolate chips, but you can use anything you have on hand. I love cashews and they add a lovely sweetness, and toffee adds a buttery flavor that is hard to resist.

Browned Butter Toffee Cashew Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups flour
1 cup salted cashews, chopped
3/4 cup toffee bits
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

In a small saucepan, heat the butter over medium low heat. Melt the butter, swirling the pan occasionally, until the butter begins to brown and starts to become nutty. Transfer the butter to a small dish and cool for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the cooled butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat on medium until combined, then stir in the eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low, slowly add the flour, stirring until the mixture is almost cohesive. Fold in the cashews, toffee bits, and chocolate chips.

Using a 1-1/2 tablespoon scoop, shape the dough into mounds on the prepared baking sheet. Place 8 balls of dough on each baking sheet, as the cookies may spread.

Bake the cookies for 8 minutes, then rotate the cookie sheet and bake for an additional 4 minutes. The cookies may be ever so slightly under baked, but they will firm up as they cool. If necessary, use a small spatula to reshape the cookies into rounds.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Cookies and Cups

Butter Rum Blondies

At work recently, there was the dilemma of extra butter. There was a pound of butter there, and I think it may have been opened, but maybe only a tablespoon had been used. I kept meaning to ask about it, and it was not getting any newer sitting in the refrigerator, so I asked around. While we aren’t 100% sure about the origin of the butter, I said I would be happy to take it and transform it into cookies. I am sure you aren’t surprised that was an acceptable idea!

The butter was salted butter, which is different than I typically use, but it isn’t too hard to adjust for salt in a recipe or two. For this recipe, using salted butter, I simply left out the additional ½ teaspoon of salt. I am not normally someone who leaves out salt, as that adds a lot of flavor, but there was salt in the butter, the toffee chips, and so on. I figured I would be fine.

These bars are quick and easy to come together. I wanted to make sure that these contained no chocolate, and usually the store carries two types of toffee bits: with and without chocolate coating. I had ones with chocolate so I picked up some chocolate-free ones to have on hand. I was worried that these would look a little plain, but they were beautiful when they came out of the oven and cut so easily!

Butter Rum Blondies
¾ cup butter, melted
½ cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½-1 teaspoon rum extract
1 ¾ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup toffee bits
Additional toffee bits, if desired

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, mix the melted butter, sugar, and brown sugar until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla and rum extract. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold in the toffee bits.

Spread the dough into the prepared pan. If desired, top with additional toffee bits.

Bake for 23-26 minutes, until golden. Allow the cookies to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Recipe from The Country Cook

Salted Chocolate Chip, Butterscotch, and Toffee Bars

In the ongoing saga of my husband complaining that I never bake chocolate chip cookies, I try to be on the lookout for interesting cookies that resemble chocolate chip cookies. This recipe was pretty close, but the mix-ins are slightly different: milk chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and toffee bits. I typically have those items on hand, although my supply of butterscotch chips was very low. I’m not sure what I have made with butterscotch chips- I really don’t tend to use them often.

When I was making this recipe, it really seemed like a lot of dough. But then I looked at the ingredients, and the quantities of butter, sugar, and flour weren’t out of line with what I expect, so I don’t quite know what to say. Even the 2-1/2 cups of mix-ins isn’t that much, as a typical cookie recipe usually uses a bag or two cups of chips. It wasn’t as overwhelming when I pressed the dough into the pan, so that was good.

Getting these bars baked right took a little more time. They got lovely and browned along the edges, but the center was clearly not done. I baked them for a few more minutes, then a few more, and finally I felt that the center was done, although maybe slightly under baked. Letting the bars cool completely helped enormously, as they are nicely baked all the way through. Perhaps you could cut the butter back a tablespoon or two, but why would you do that? The butter adds a lovely crispness to the edges of the bars which is wonderful.

Salted Chocolate Chip, Butterscotch, and Toffee Bars
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk chocolate chunks/chips
3/4 cup butterscotch chips
3/4 cup toffee pieces
Flaked salt
    
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9” x 13” pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold in the milk chocolate chunks/chips, butterscotch chips, and toffee pieces.

Press the dough evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the bars with flaked salt.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the bars are golden. Allow the bars to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Recipe from Sweet Recipeas

Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies

The Seattle area and the Eastside, where I live, keeps growing and growing. Older complexes are torn down and rebuilt as mixed retail and apartments. While I think it brings a lot of unneeded density, the new complexes often have interesting restaurants and bakeries to explore. My husband and I recently visited one of these rebuilt places and found a very interesting bakery.

One of the items that they had for sell was a peanut butter shortbread cookie. I will admit that it looked like a regular peanut butter cookie, but I was curious how it would be different. We purchased one and when we ate it later it was a peanut butter cookie, but crumbly like shortbread. My husband found a couple of recipes online, and I decided I would give it a try.

The recipe I chose was super simple, and you bake the cookies in a muffin pan. The original recipe contained chocolate chunks, but also gave the option to use something else or leave the mix-ins out completely. My first thought was to use peanut butter chips, to keep it all peanut butter, but I was out of those. I ended up using toffee bits, which is mainly toffee with a tiny bit of chocolate. These cookies bake beautifully, perfectly round, with a slight crumbliness due to the nature of shortbread. These do taste like peanut butter, but it isn’t the strongest flavor. But there is always the option to add more peanut butter!

Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies
¾ cup butter, room temperature
⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
⅔ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
4 ounces mix-ins (chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, toffee bits)
Sanding sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 12-cup muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, peanut butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Stir on medium-low until the mixture is smooth. With the mixer running on low, stir in the flour.  Add whatever mix-ins you are using, folding in with a spatula.  

Divide the dough into the 24 pieces and press in the bottom of the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle the cookies with sanding sugar.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden. Allow the cookies to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Run a thin, flat knife around the edges of the cookies to help remove them from the pan. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Recipe from The Café Sucre Farine

Espresso Toffee Chip Cookies

A couple of years ago, I came across a recipe that called for coffee/espresso chocolate chips. I was sure that I had seen them, but after looking at many stores, I couldn’t locate them again. Perhaps they were only available for a short time, or during the holidays. I forgot about it until about a month ago when my husband and I found espresso chocolate chips. We bought them as I knew I could find a great cookie recipe that used these chips.

I went looking for recipes, and my husband had requested something other than a chocolate cookie. That was reasonable. I knew the chips would have coffee flavor, so I looked for recipes that included coffee in some form. I found this recipe, which espresso powder, and knew it would work. They also contain toffee bits, which I like a lot. I used the toffee bits with chocolate, as that’s all the store carried, but feel free to use the variety that is available to you.

I decided to take these cookies to work, but I couldn’t make them dairy free (toffee contains dairy) and I used regular flour. It’s pretty quiet at work so it’s ok. I didn’t stray from the recipe at all, except in using the toffee that was available to me and using pecans. This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies, but I did use my larger cookie scoop, so you get a good bite of cookie! These cookies come out of the oven puffy, but then set wonderfully. The coffee flavor is pronounced, with the espresso powder and espresso chips, and even those who don’t drink coffee love these cookies. Just the smell of the coffee is wonderful, so how could you not?

Espresso Toffee Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2-1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 cup espresso chocolate chips
1 cup toffee/brickle chips
½ cup chopped pecans

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, eggs, vanilla, sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed until light. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, salt, and espresso powder. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, stopping to scrape the sides of the mixer bowl occasionally. Fold in the espresso chips, toffee chips, and chopped pecans.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, using a medium-sized scoop.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until cookies are baked through. They are puffy when they come out of the oven but set as they cool. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Kitchen Fun with my Three Sons

Caramel Toffee Pumpkin Cookies

If you know anything about me, you may likely know that I don’t really like pumpkin pie. This time of year, I come across many recipes that use pumpkin, but they aren’t really my favorite. I find that when you use pumpkin or other similar ingredients, they add too much moisture to the dough, and the cookies are soft and even sticky. That’s not the texture I care for, so I am extremely careful when looking at any recipe that contains pumpkin.

But when is pumpkin not pumpkin? I often make sweet potato pie as I like that more than pumpkin pie (but let’s be honest, I usually make apple pie). In my cupboard I have canned sweet potato, and I thought about using that in a pumpkin cookie recipe. It should work! From the can, sweet potato puree and pumpkin puree look the same and have those great scents of fall. It’s a little strange to use potato in a cookie, but not too bad when you consider it an alternative to pumpkin.

Looking at the original picture of these, I knew they wouldn’t be sticky or cakey. They were thin and soft, but still had a good chew. They mix together quickly and don’t require any refrigeration, which was convenient. It’s a little difficult to tell when these cookies brown, but they do start to color a bit. The cookies will be puffed when removed from the oven, but then flatten into a nice flat cookie, sprinkled with toffee flecks. The cookies are soft but retain a nice chew. They taste like fall, but with a subtle pumpkin/sweet potato flavor!

Caramel Toffee Pumpkin Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin/sweet potato puree
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup toffee bits
1/2 cup caramel bits

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the pumpkin and vanilla and mix on medium to incorporate. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt, mixing until the dough almost comes together. Add the toffee bits and caramel bits and stir them into the dough using a spatula.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, so that each mound of dough is about 1-1/2” wide.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies begin to brown. The cookies will be puffy when removed from the oven but will flatten as they cool. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Chunky Chef

Peanut Butter, Honey, and Toffee Cookies

This week, I challenged by husband to find cookies for me to make this week. He accepted the challenge and found a couple of different recipes that sounded good. He, like me, tends to drift towards more hearty flavors. We had recently purchased some mead, and one of the recipes uses mead. I am looking forward to that recipe, but I didn’t want to make it this week since it is also a ginger/molasses cookie. Not really springy at all!

These cookies sounded like a combination I love- peanut butter and honey. I have used honey in cookie recipes before, and you do need to be careful to ensure that your cookies don’t burn. This recipe caught my interest as it suggested adding chocolate chips, or toffee, or other mix-ins to the cookies. Since I had toffee chips, I thought those would be nice. I have toffee chips that aren’t covered with chocolate, but the chocolate covered ones would work as well.

This recipe is quick and makes two dozen cookies. The cookies are sticky, and I was worried that they would spread as I typically refrigerate peanut butter cookies before baking. Thankfully, that wasn’t an issue with these cookies. When flattening the cookies, make sure you use plenty of flour or you will end up with a sticky mess! I did worry that adding toffee bits (which are sugar) to a cookie with honey might be too sweet, but the peanut butter balances the flavor. The toffee chips are not distinct but add a subtle crunch to these tasty cookies.

Peanut Butter, Honey, and Toffee Cookies
¼ cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup honey
1 egg
¾ cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup toffee chips

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicon baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and honey on medium until light. Add the egg, peanut butter, and vanilla and mix on medium to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, salt, and baking soda. Once the dough comes together, fold in the toffee chips.

Drop the cookies onto the prepared baking sheet and flatten the cookies with a fork dipped in flour.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Chinook Honey Company

Chocolate Toffee Chip Cookies

One of the downfalls of being at home all the time is our inability to travel. We miss our family in the UK, and we also miss trips closer to home. My husband and I travel to Canada at least once a year, sometimes visiting Victoria and other times Vancouver. We’re looking forward to when the time is right to travel again, but that certainly won’t be until we’ve received the vaccine, and we don’t know when that will be.

One of my favorite places to visit in Canada is Purdy’s Chocolate. Thankfully, they do ship to the States, but it isn’t the quickest. I get email from them and one of their emails had a recipe that was similar to a chocolate chip cookie. My husband often complains that I don’t make enough chocolate chip cookies, so I figured this recipe would be just different enough. I still have some of my favorite hedgehogs from Purdy’s, so I didn’t want to place another order. I figured I would find some sort of chocolate bar with toffee at the store.

There were many varieties at the store, and in a pinch, you could always chop up a Heath bar. I ended up using two different chocolate bars, one with toffee and one with toffee and almonds, as they only had one of the chocolate/toffee bars. I should have halved the recipe, but the given yield was 24 cookies. My recipe made a lot more than that, so if you are baking for two, you could very easily pare this recipe down. These cookies are very similar to a chocolate chip cookie, but with an extra added punch from the toffee and almonds.

Chocolate Toffee Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
6 ounces chocolate toffee bars, chopped

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and then add it to the batter. Stir in the salt.

With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour. Fold in the chopped chocolate bars with a spatula.

Drop onto the prepared baking sheets, using about 1 tablespoon of dough for each cookie.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until set and lightly browned along the edges. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Purdy’s Chocolate

Butterscotch Toffee Shortbread

I have to say that summer is certainly not my season and I am looking forward to cooler weather this fall. Baking in the summer is difficult, but I have tried to bake when the house isn’t too warm. I’m also glad that so far, we’ve only had a couple of very warm days. September is when the weather usually begins to cool, and even if the day is warm, it will cool off in the evening and overnight. Let’s hope that this is true this year!

Since I have been working remotely, I haven’t been taking cookies to work, and I really miss that. I had the opportunity to visit with my coworker friend so that we could (socially distanced) watch Hamilton via Disney Plus. I figured I would make cookies as I don’t often have that opportunity. I did use rubber gloves and washed my hands a lot, so I never actually touched the dough. I do have to say that it’s challenging trying to be so careful, but I am getting used to it. 

I made a half batch of this recipe and it ended up making about 18 cookies. I didn’t do the best job in cutting the cookies in even slices, so that will certainly impact the baking time. The thicker cookies needed the full 12 minutes to bake, but if yours are thinner I would check them after 10 minutes. I didn’t make any other changes to this recipe, although I was supposed to chop up the butterscotch chips and I didn’t, but that didn’t seem to make any difference. The simplicity of a shortbread cookie really shines here, with the buttery, crumbly shortbread paired with the distinct flavors of butterscotch and toffee.

Butterscotch Toffee Shortbread 
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup toffee bits

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl beat the butter and powdered sugar on medium until creamy. Add the vanilla and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. When almost incorporated, add the butterscotch chips and the toffee bits and stir on low until the mixture comes together.

Divide the dough into tow halves and shape each half into a log, about 3 inches wide. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats. 

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. Slice the cookies into 1/3” thick slices and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until set. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Mom on Time Out

Butterscotch Toffee Cookies

It’s rare that twice in a month I make cookies based on a cake/brownie mix, but in January I find it difficult to know what to bake. I don’t want super extravagant cookies, but it seems too early to focus on the flavors of spring. Right after the holiday I pinned a number of recipes that I thought would be good for the New Year and this one was included. It’s a very simple recipe and I made sure I had the butterscotch chips and toffee, but this recipe almost didn’t happen.

As I don’t use cake mixes, I was unaware that the grocery stores now carry a very small selection of mixes. I needed a butter pecan cake mix, which did not sound unusual, but was difficult to find. None of the stores that I regularly visit carried what I needed. I made my every-year-or-so pilgrimage to Walmart, as they often have prepared foods that need for baking. Again I lucked out and they had it available. I was relieved as the only other option was to buy online, and that would have been expensive.

This recipe is so easy to make. It’s just the cake mix, oil, eggs, and mix-ins. Normally when recipes call for room temperature eggs, I don’t pay much heed, but this time I took the time to do it. I’m not sure how much of a difference it makes, but the dough came together well. The dough is sticky, but they bake up fine. I used my medium cookie scoop and made about 3-1/2 dozen cookies. The cookies come out of the oven looking perfect. These cookies are quite sweet, with a lovely combination of chewy but also crunchy from the toffee bits.

Butterscotch Toffee Cookies

2 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 package butter pecan cake mix

10 ounces butterscotch chips

8 ounces milk chocolate English toffee bits

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the eggs and oil until blended. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the cake mix. With the mixer on low, fold in the butterscotch chips and toffee bits.

Drop by tablespoonfuls on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Allie Blinder, Taste of Home