Easy Chocolate-Topped Shortbread Toffee Bars
Sneak Preview: These easy Chocolate-Topped Shortbread Toffee Bars have a shortbread base covered with melted chocolate chips and chopped pecans. Impressive but quick to make when time is short!
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What recipe do you pull out when you need a quick dessert? For me, the recipe must be easy and contain ingredients I already have. Three dozen drop cookies are not the first thing that comes to mind. How about you?
I prefer to skip the brownie mix and go for these Chocolate-Topped Shortbread Toffee Bars. The shortbread base is simple to assemble and only requires flour, butter, and sugar. When the base is cooked, spread chocolate chips (or another flavor of your choice), let them melt, then spread evenly with a spatula.
Bonus: The base is thinner than the average toffee bar recipe, so you can eat these without as much guilt.
How to easily memorize this shortbread toffee bar recipe:
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When pressed for time, would you rather make a recipe you know by heart or one hiding in a cookbook or messy recipe file?
Yep! That’s what I thought. Like you, I go with what I know to save time.
Given the above, I have good news…
You won’t need a written recipe for long with these easy cookies. Here’s a trick I use so I don’t have to look up the recipe.
Remember 1/4.
The “1” stands for 1 cup of flour. The “4” stands for the 4 ingredients in the shortbread base. Put them together, and you have 1/4, which indicates the amount needed for three of the ingredients:
1 cup flour + 1/4 cup powdered sugar + 1/4 cup butter + 1/4 teaspoon salt
I’m unsure if this explanation makes sense, but it works for me.
Conveniently, I eyeball the chocolate chips. No need to memorize that measurement.
Variations:
The possibilities for topping these bars are numerous. The cookies in the top photo are covered with semi-sweet chocolate chips and pecans. My oldest son goes crazy for them.
My husband likes the bars pictured below featuring half chocolate and half white chocolate chips.
Next, I may try peanut butter chips marbled with chocolate chips. And how about melted chocolate chips topped with toasted almonds? Yum!
How to line a pan for clean and easy removal of chocolate toffee bars:
A parchment paper or foil sling is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to enable you to remove these cookies from the pan without crumbling. With that in mind, see the directions in the picture tutorial below.
If you have questions or suggestions, email me privately for a quick answer: Paula at saladinajar.com. Hope to see you again soon!
Easy Chocolate Toffee Bar Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup melted butter
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or flavor of your choice
- ⅛ cup chopped nuts - optional
Instructions
- Make a parchment paper or foil sling for an 8-inch pan. This is essential if you want any hope of getting the bars out of the pan without crumbling.
- Preheat oven to 350˚F.
- Stir flour, sugar and salt together in small bowl. Pour in melted butter and stir. Use fingers to thoroughly mix butter with dry ingredients.
- Dump butter/flour mixture in to pan and pat down smooth. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.
- Immediately after removing from the oven, sprinkle chips evenly over the surface of shortbread cookie base. Allow to sit until all chips are completely melted and soft.
- VERY carefully use a knife or back of a spoon to spread soft chips in an even layer. If desired, sprinkle chopped, toasted nuts over the top. Put in refrigerator until chocolate layer hardens. Remove cookies and sling from pan carefully. Slice into 16 pieces.
Paula Rhodes, author
I’m a retired home economist, wife, mother, grandmother, and creator of Saladinajar.com. I believe you don’t have to be a chef to find joy in creating homemade food worth sharing. Here you’ll find time-saving tips, troubleshooting advice, and confidence-inspiring recipes to make life in the kitchen more fun, appetizing, and satisfying.