Crisp Toffee Bars

Crisp Toffee Bars
Melina Hammer for The New York Times
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
4(359)
Notes
Read community notes

The original recipe for these buttery, basic toffee bars belongs to Maida Heatter, the great American dessert maven of the 20th century. It was adapted for a cast-iron skillet by Charlotte Druckman, who wrote a book on cast-iron baking in 2016. “You can caramelize a crust in cast iron in a way that would never happen in a sheet pan,” she said. Make sure to bake the bars until very well browned across the top; that is the sign that the desired level of crisp chewiness has been achieved. The recipe calls for adding either nuts or chocolate to dough; you can add both if you like, but in that case use a larger cast-iron skillet (or use a plain old 9-by-13-inch baking pan). —Julia Moskin

Featured in: Fashioning Cast-Iron Pans for Today’s Cooks

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Ingredients

Yield:About 2 dozen bars
  • 2sticks/225 grams unsalted butter, cold but not frozen, more for buttering the pan
  • ½teaspoon salt
  • 1teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1cup/210 grams soft-packed dark brown sugar
  • 2cups/240 grams unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1cup/100 grams slivered or sliced almonds (or walnut pieces), toasted, or 6 ounces/170 grams chocolate chips or small chunks
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)

172 calories; 10 grams fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 21 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 12 grams sugars; 1 gram protein; 53 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place a rack in the middle and place a 10-inch cast-iron skillet on it.

  2. Step 2

    In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter on low speed for about a minute, until softened. Scrape down the bowl and the paddle.

  3. Step 3

    With the mixer running at low speed, add salt and vanilla. Add the brown sugar, then turn the speed up to medium and beat until mixture is the color of peanut butter and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl again.

  4. Step 4

    With the mixer running at low speed, shake in flour, beating just until dough holds together. Mix in nuts or chocolate just until combined.

  5. Step 5

    Remove the hot skillet from the oven and place a small lump of butter in it. As butter melts, brush it onto the bottom and sides of the pan until evenly coated.

  6. Step 6

    Dump dough into skillet and press it out to evenly fill the skillet. You can use your fingers (being careful to avoid touching the hot pan), a potato masher or the bottom of a measuring cup. Press dough down firmly to make a compact, even layer.

  7. Step 7

    Transfer to oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the top is walnut brown. You may be tempted to take it out when the edges have begun to darken, but let it continue to cook so the entire surface can take on that color. There may be bubbles visible on top of the dough; that’s a good sign.

  8. Step 8

    Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan. If necessary, run a butter knife around the sides of the pan to loosen. Square off the circle shape of the pan by cutting the four rounded edges off; you will have an approximately 9-inch square. Cut the square into bars, squares or diamonds. (The rounded edges can be chopped or crumbled and used as an ice cream topping.)

  9. Step 9

    Let the bars cool completely before removing from pan. Use a small spatula or butter knife to transfer them to paper towels to blot the buttery bottoms. Store in airtight container; they keep well for up to 1 week.

Ratings

4 out of 5
359 user ratings
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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

this is sheer butterscotch heaven. I don't cut off the rounded arcs. I slice this into wedges after cutting out the center as a circle. Brilliant. delicious. and the other thing is, why "wipe" the bottom of the glorious butter?

I do sprinkle these with a modicum of confectioner's sugar, just for the pretty.

The cast iron pan is perfect method and I followed the recipe. Used both nuts and chocolate and 12" cast iron. In my oven first go at 35 minutes too dry. Checked second go at 20 min.,left to 25. Anywhere in between 20 - 25 would've worked. Must let cool completely or they will break up. Can't hurry love. I'm trying to figure out why I need to make a third batch this week. Crumbs are good on ice cream, or to mix in home made.

I made these in a 9'' ceramic tart pan, and they came out looking beautiful! The dough was a bit crumbly, so I added 2 tablespoons of cognac (I expect bourbon would be delicious as well!) for a flavor boost -- very tasty!

These bars are moderately sweet, perfect for an afternoon tea!

Any rrecipe like this can be made with a handheld electric mixer or by hand. My mother didn't get an electric mixer until I left for college and she had to start creaming her own butter. Cream the butter and sugar with a fork until well blended. Takes longer but is perfectly possible.

Uhh. It's just a a bit of butter to grease the pan . It does not really matter,as the recipe mentions.there nothing more to it. Really .

coffee-toffee bars: add 1 tbsp instant coffee, 1 tsp. almond flavor to butter-sugar mix. bake on jelly roll ban. cut in rectangles.

Out of curiosity - why start with cold butter and beat to soften? Could you start with softened butter?

My cast iron skillet is only 8" so I used a half-sheet pan and baked for 30 minutes. Came out perfectly brown and crispy.

I made these for the first time as part of my annual cookie trays to take to work. I was hesitant about leaving them in the oven for the extra time, but I followed the recipe to the letter. I used walnuts, just unbelievable! A cross between a cookie and candy. I will definitely keep this recipe in any cookie bakes, not just holidays.

Me, have you tried the method you suggested?

If you google "substitute for stand mixer" you'll get many options for other cooking tools.

King Arthur's gf flour, available at most Whole Foods an online, is the best choice for most things. Behaves very much like regular flour. TJ's has a rather good on as well. But hey...do what I did and do your own google search...or just roll up your sleeves and experiment... results in both cases can be instructive and rewarding.

Sorry, NYT, I’ve cooked many lovely recipes from you and had a lot of success, but this one is a miss. A good half off the bars fell apart upon trying to remove them from the pan. And I did follow the recipe to the letter. It tastes fine but is so crumbly that the bars aren’t pretty enough for anyone to see, which was my purpose for making them (a pot luck.) I am a seasoned-enough cook to try something new for the first time for a pot luck, but this just didn’t work.

This was excellent. Worked perfectly.

Made with pecans and dark chocolate chips. Baked in a 10” skillet. My son pointed out the sad truth: this is just a giant cookie.

Easy, fun, my husband likes them. They are not a “delicacy”. They are sweet and rich and finish a meal with someone you love. These are work-horses. Enjoy the ease and decadence.

Not particularly impressed with these bars. The recipe came together well enough and the bars had a decent texture but the taste was bland and not at all reminiscent of toffee or butterscotch as some of the reviews have suggested. A bit disappointing.

Not great. I left in the full time, 40 minutes, resisting, as instructed, the temptation to pull put before the top was walnut brown. And they were overdone, not chewy, a bit scorched on the bottom. If I try again, I'll try 25 minutes to 30 minutes, make them less browned. Reading the reviews, seems you need to find the sweet spot between adequate cooking (not soft fall-apart) and overdoing it (no chew)

Very easy and delicious. Used 11" cast iron pan and added the chocolate and walnuts. Baked in convection oven at 350 for 33 minutes, longer would have made them too dry. They were just right.

I agree with the other reviewers who called this one "meh". The recipe worked fine for me, but the resulting bars were very underwhelming and sort of greasy. Would not make these again.

Followed directions. Easy peasy. Used chocolate instead of nuts. Cooked 35 minutes. No issues getting out of pan after cooling. Absolutely nothing wrong with these and folks loved them, but they didn't blow me away. With all of that sugar and butter I'm going to need to be blown away.

meh. Followed the recipe, competent baker, nothing special, to my taste.

This is the second time I've made these, but the first time I made them in a 9 x 13" dish. They were good, thin & crispy. This time I did them in the skillet and they were thicker, still nice and crispy all the way through when I baked them for 40 min. Cut them while they are warm but be sure to let them cool COMPLETELY before taking them out of the skillet, or they will fall apart. Also, I wasn't paying attention so instead of adding a _combined_ cup of nuts and chocolate, I added 1 C. ea. Yum!

I doubled the recipe, used good quality chocolate and made half with pecans and half with almonds. Came out of both the cast iron pan and the enameled iron pan fine, but they seem pretty close to basic chocolate chip cookie bars. And actually, in spite of the comments to be sure to cook them long enough, the less cooked batch was actually preferred.

I forgot to butter the pan, but it wasn't a problem— in fact, I was able to easily pop the whole thing out of the pan and slice them on a cutting board instead. Baked 35 min, however I think 30 would have been the optimal time for a slightly chewier inside. These are like a brown sugar cookie but with excellent crispy butterscotch flavour on the bottom. I used chocolate chips and sprinkled fleur de sel on top; we'll see if they last until Christmas!

Followed directions - however bars were extremely fragile. Found it challenging to cut in presentable squares for Christmas plate gifts. Not worth the time or trouble.

This recipe is a definite keeper! Crisp, caramelized, and flaky. Followed the recipe as written and baked in a 12 inch cast iron skillet since I used pecans and chocolate (why would I not want nuts and chocolate?). It was browned and done at 25-28 minutes probably because of the larger skillet. I was able to lift the entire cookie? out of the skillet and cut on a cutting board. Note: My skillet is very old and perfectly seasoned so almost non-stick.

These are delicious- mine took 32 minutes and I let them cool completely in the pan Took an hour.) I had a problem cutting them into uniform shapes though - someone suggested pie wedges of sort in another note but I think they would be too large. If anyone has a suggestion to make the cutting up of these uniform and attractive please write in.

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Credits

Adapted from "Stir, Sizzle, Bake" by Charlotte Druckman

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