Easy Toffee Bars have a buttery brown sugar shortbread crust topped with melted chocolate, butterscotch chips and toffee bits. An easy dessert recipe!
If you need an easy fall dessert, Thanksgiving dessert or bar cookie for Christmas holiday cookie party, these Toffee Bars are for you! They have a melt-in-your-mouth shortbread crust topped with a layer of smooth semi sweet chocolate, butterscotch morsels and crunchy toffee bits, and they are absolutely delicious!
I found this easy recipe for toffee bars in my grandma's old recipe collection. I hadn't had them in ages, but I remember really enjoying them (probably a little too much) around Thanksgiving and Christmas! Actually, you can enjoy these anytime!
To be clear, these are not toffee bars with sweetened condensed milk or Saltine toffee bars made with crackers. They're more of a cookie bar topped with melted chocolate.
How to Make Toffee Bars with a Shortbread Crust
First, take your butter out of the fridge to soften up a little. It makes it much easier to work with!
Then, cream the butter with the brown sugar and an egg yolk. Mix in the vanilla, flour and salt until it's well combined. The dough will be very stiff, but this is normal.
Use Parchment Paper
Parchment paper isn't absolutely necessary, but it makes it so much easier to lift the bars out of the pan for slicing. Less mess, too!
Press the dough into the pan so it covers the bottom. It might go up on the sides a little, which is fine.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until the crust is a light golden brown. Don't over bake! Sprinkle your chocolate chips over the crust, and pop the pan back into the oven for about a minute or just until the chips start to melt.
Use a spatula to spread that lovely melted chocolate over the crust. Then, let it cool slightly, and sprinkle your butterscotch morsels and some crushed toffee bits over the chocolate.
If you can't find packaged toffee bits, just smash up a couple of Heath Bars. You might want to save a couple if your kids get any Heath Bars on Halloween!
More Easy Cookie Bar Recipes
- Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Easy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars
- Easy Lemon Bars
- No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Easy Toffee Bars Recipe
Easy Toffee Bars
Ingredients
Shortbread crust
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cups all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Topping
- 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup butterscotch chips
- ¼ cup crushed toffee bits
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and egg yolk
- Stir in the vanilla, flour and salt. Batter will be very thick
- Line a 9 x 13-inch metal pan with parchment paper, (recommended) and press the dough into the pan so that it covers the bottom
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until crust is light golden brown. It may puff up but will settle when cool
- Remove from oven, sprinkle with chocolate chips, and return to oven for 1 minute or until chips start to melt
- Remove from oven, use spatula to spread chocolate evenly over crust, and allow to cool slightly
- Sprinkle butterscotch morsels and toffee bits over melted chocolate, and allow to cool completely before removing from pan ( lift the parchment paper up) and cutting into bars
Notes
Nutrition
Cathy McCleery says
Dee,
Are you sure the recipe is only 1 cup of flour? It says "cups" and my batter was not as thick as yours.
thanks,
Cathy
Dee says
I will look for the original recipe, but I remember it being 1 cup. I'll update when I find it. 🙂
James says
Couldn't wait to make these. Yummy, English Toffee is my favorite.
Dee says
I'm glad you liked them, James. Thanks a bunch!
Erin | Dinners,Dishes and Dessert says
We are in love with these Toffee Bars right now!
Toni says
Such an amazing treat everyone will love!
Ann says
These toffee bars look irresistible. So rich and wonderful. I like that you use brown sugar in this recipe but I’d probably replace all-purpose flour. We’re having a kids’ party soon, and now I’m thinking of making these lovely toffee bars for my kids and their friends. My sons and I often do some baking on weekends, so we’ll probably even spend time making these bars together. Hope kids won’t get disappointed and will go crazy for these instead. Thank you for sharing it with us Dee. I got so much inspiration.
Dee says
Thanks, Ann. I hope you get a chance to make them!
Taylor says
That shortbread crust is so delicious! And love the toffee bits on top...yum!
Catalina says
I am drooling over these toffee bars! How inviting these look!
Dee says
Thanks so much, Catalina! They go fast!
Stephanie says
I'm a toffee snob and these bars were fantastic! Such a great recipe, thank you!
Dee says
So glad you enjoyed them! Thanks a bunch! 🙂
Sara Welch says
I love anything with toffee and this is no exception! Looking forward to enjoying this for dessert tonight, indeed!
Dee says
I hope you enjoyed the toffee! 🙂
Shannon Graham says
I absolutely love older recipes like this. I have many recipes I've collected from my grandmother's recipe box.
Dee says
Same here! Grandma's recipes really are the best! 🙂