Chocolate Toffee Bars — An ultra BUTTERY base made with almond extract and topped with CHOCOLATE and TOFFEE BITS!! An easy dessert that’s ready in 15 minutes but tastes like you slaved over it!!
Easiest Toffee Cookie Bars
There are two ingredients I love but I rarely bake with and I changed that with these bars.
The first ingredient is almond extract, with its heavenly scent that I wish I could wear as perfume. It adds a special sweetness to desserts and I adore it.
The second ingredient that I have a thing for is toffee bits which are crushed Heath Bar candies. They were always a favorite Halloween candy growing up. Most kids happily traded me their Heath Bars and I readily accepted.
The toffee bits add a wonderful crunch to the bars, which are made of an ultra buttery base before being topped with chocolate.
It’s an easy recipe that takes less than 15 minutes to bake, making it perfect for spur of the moment dessert cravings or impromptu guests.
What’s in the Toffee Bars?
To make these chocolate toffee bars, all you’ll need is:
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Egg
- Almond extract
- Salt
- All-purpose flour
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Toffee bits
How to Make Toffee Bars
Simply cream together the butter and sugars, then stir in the egg and almond extract. Add the salt and flour next before turning the dough into a greased and lined 9×13-inch pan.
The cookie bars need to bake for 15 minutes, or just until they’re golden brown.
Once they come out of the oven, evenly scatter the chocolate chips over top, let melt, then smooth out into an even later. Sprinkle the toffee bits over top and let the bars cool before slicing.
Can I Use Gluten-Free Flour?
Since these chocolate toffee bars have a shortbread base, you should be fine to use a gluten-free all-purpose flour substitute. The bars don’t need to bake up fluffy or have lots of layers, so I imagine a gluten-free flour would work here.
Tips for Making Toffee Bars
I used 2 teaspoons of almond extract in the recipe, but if you’re sensitive to it you can reduce the amount. As is the case with vanilla extract, almost no amount is too much for me.
If you can’t find the Heath baking bits where you live, you may finely chop up a chocolate-toffee candy bar instead. Use your best judgement.
The toffee cookie bars last about 5 days at room temperature, but they also freeze well!
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Chocolate Toffee Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup toffee bits
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9×13-inch pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or handheld electric mixer), add the butter, sugars, and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the egg, almond extract (reduce to 1 teaspoon if you’re sensitive to almond flavoring), salt, and beat on medium-high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the flour and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan forming an even, smooth flat layer. Dough is sticky; use the back of a spatula or your fingers to work dough into place. Bake for about 15 minutes or until edges are very lightly golden brown.
- Immediately upon removing pan from the oven, evenly scatter the chocolate chips over the crust and allow them to sit for about 5 minutes to melt before spreading them smooth with a spatula. You can speed up the melting process up by placing the pan back into the oven for about 2 minutes.
- Evenly top with toffee bits and place pan on a wire rack to cool. Allow bars to cool until chocolate has set before slicing and serving. Bars will keep airtight at room temp for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 4 months.
- Adapted from The Food Charlatan
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Are these crunchy or soft? I’m looking for a toffee recipe that is soft to bite into.
Definitely soft. The base is very buttery with chocolate on top. The toffee bits you add on top add crunchiness but the bar itself is soft.
I enjoyed making a toffee bar without sweetened milk that is appropriately sweet and delicious. I also sprinkled a small amount of chopped pecans over the top, and agree that using a very small amount of almond flavoring is probably best, mine are a tad to almond-y.
great
oooh I don’t use almond extract nearly enough either! These toffee almond bars look like JUST the thing, ooohhh I love toffee!
Avery, Thanks for the information. Have you used the heath bits in cookies?
Yes I have. I remember my mother using them in cookies when I was growing up, not a new thing at all, and super tasty!
Almond extract and Heath bits/bars you had me at hello!! However, this weekend is reserved for the nutella stuffed chocolate chip blondies. My eldest son is making his second attempt at leaping out of the nest and the blondies and the pan are going to follow him! Thanks for sharing these…maybe next weekend!
Second attempt at leaving, well, if I had sweets and goodies being baked for me I may not want to go either :) Hope the Nutella Blondies turned out great and these are another very easy recipe for your next baking project!
I love Heath bars but I haven’t seen any for awhile. Where did you find them? I am now craving one.
These aren’t Heath bars, but rather the baking bits. I linked to them in the post and recipe using an Amazon link but I have good luck at the grocery store or Target finding them.
I love chocolate and toffee together! And, I am with you on the almond extract — I take a whiff anytime I use it. :)
I love almond extract, too, but I have many more recipes requiring vanilla than almond–this sounds like a nice taste variation. I may have to purchase toffee bits. :)
I think my vanilla to almond recipes are 99 to 1 but I think I am going to start using almond ext more in stuff, just because :)
Chocolate-toffee-almond is a delicious trio! The sun is just coming up but I’m not ashamed to admit wanting one of these with my coffee. I still remember the first time I tried an almond cookie as a kid so I developed a fondness for almond extract early on!
I think almond extract is just pure bliss! And these would be perfect with coffee!
My mom made these for me when I was growing up, and it’s one of the only things she baked, so these hold a very special place in my heart. I bake them a lot now, and I always use almond extract because, you know, it’s crack and smells like angels are singing. These are the best!
What a great story and glad these have a special place in your heart and that you bake them a lot now!
it’s crack and smells like angels are singing <--- SO TRUE
These look delish. :) I’m with you… I could stand and sniff the bottle of almond extract all day long. In fact, I only bought the bottle I have because I wanted it for sniffing every so often. Heh.
I live in British Columbia, pretty close to the border of WA, so I’ve had Heath bars (and chips) on occasion. Up here in Canada, we have Skor chips, which are basically the inside of a Skor chocolate bar, minus the chocolate. They sell them in the same aisle as the choc chips and I’m pretty sure that I’ve kept the company in business the last 8 or 10 years. :P Heck, the last two bags didn’t even make it into any of my desserts. They were lost to “freshness sampling”. ;)
Now that I’ve looked at my blog, I realize that I haven’t updated it in a few years with my baking. That’s sad. Need to get on that.
Skor and Heath Bits, pretty much interchangeable. I’ve had both of them too and thought I was the only person keeping the company in business :)