This post may contain affiliate links. Please see disclosure form more information.
Easy Toffee Bars have a buttery brown sugar shortbread crust topped with melted chocolate, butterscotch chips and crushed Heath Bars. A vintage dessert recipe perfect for the holiday season!
Easy Toffee Bar Recipe
I found this easy recipe for old fashioned toffee bars in my grandma’s vintage 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!
Why you’ll Love Grandma’s Toffee Squares
Easy to make with simple ingredients you may already have on hand.
A time-tested recipe that yields about 15 bars at just 154 calories each. I call it portion controlled indulgence!
These are truly the best toffee bars with a melt-in-your-mouth shortbread base topped with a layer of smooth chocolate, butterscotch morsels and crunchy toffee bits. So good!
If you need an easy fall dessert, Thanksgiving dessert or bar cookie for a Christmas holiday cookie party, these Chocolate Toffee Bars are for you! To be clear, these are not toffee bars with sweetened condensed milk or Saltine toffee bars made with crackers. They’re more like butterscotch toffee cookie bars topped with melted chocolate.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
Here are the basics. You’ll find complete ingredients in the printable recipe card below.
- Butter — I use salted softened butter at room temperature, but unsalted is fine.
- Brown sugar
- Egg yolk
- Vanilla extract
- Flour — all purpose flour
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips — to top the bars. I prefer semi sweet chocolate to balance out the sweetness, but milk chocolate chips also work.
- Butterscotch morsels — for the topping
- Heath bars — or Skor Bars, chopped toffee candy or toffee bits
How to Make Toffee Bars
First, take your butter out of the fridge to soften up a little. It makes it much easier to work with and prevents the crust from crumbling.
Then, cream butter with the brown sugar, vanilla and an egg yolk in a large bowl. Mix in the flour and salt until it’s well combined. The dough will be very stiff, but this is normal.
Press the dough into the pan so it covers the bottom. It might go up on the sides a little, which is fine.
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!
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until the crust is a light golden brown. Don’t over bake! Sprinkle 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 or offset spatula or the back of a spoon to spread that lovely melted chocolate over the crust. Then, let it cool slightly, and sprinkle your butterscotch morsels and some crushed Heath Bar bits over the chocolate.
How to Store Chocolate Toffee Bars
Store the bars in an airtight container for 4-5 days. You can leave them at room temperature or you can store them in the refrigerator if your house is warm and the chocolate gets too soft. Freeze the bars wrapped in plastic wrap and aluminum foil or in a freezer safe container. They freeze well for up to 3 months.
Tips for the Best Toffee Cookie Bars
Use room temperature butter that is soft but not melted.
I recommend lining the baking dish with parchment paper or aluminum foil as it is much easier to remove the bars for easy slicing. Lightly spray the baking pan with cooking spray so the parchment paper fits tightly in the pan.
Allow the bars to cool completely at room temperature before scoring. You can pop them into the fridge for a bit to speed things up if needed. If you are freezing the bars, slice them up first, and then wrap them.
If you’re using a glass baking dish, reduce oven temperature to 325.
Plan ahead. If your kids get any Heath Bars on Halloween, save them!
Variations
You can use any toffee candy to top the bars. Crushed peanuts or pecans are also good on these.
Leave out the butterscotch chips to tone down the sweetness.
More Easy Cookie Bar Recipes
- Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Cake mix cookie bars
- Grandma’s lemon bars
- Sugar cookie bars
- Biscoff cookie bars
Best Easy Toffee Bars
Video
Ingredients
Shortbread crust
- 1 cup butter softened at room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Topping
- 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup butterscotch chips
- ¼ cup crushed Heath Bars or toffee bits
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter 1 cup butter, sugar 1 cup brown sugar, egg yolk 1 egg yolk and vanilla extract 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Stir in the flour 2 cups all purpose flour and salt ¼ teaspoon sea 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 2 cups semi sweet 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 ½ cup butterscotch chips and toffee bits ¼ cup crushed Heath Bars over melted chocolate, and allow to cool completely before removing from pan (lift the parchment paper up) and cutting into bars
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
For more easy recipes, sign up for the weekly newsletter and follow me on social media.
Recipe published in 2019 and updated in 2026.
I will look for the original recipe, but I remember it being 1 cup. I’ll update when I find it. 🙂
Couldn’t wait to make these. Yummy, English Toffee is my favorite.
I’m glad you liked them, James. Thanks a bunch!
We are in love with these Toffee Bars right now!
Such an amazing treat everyone will love!
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.
Thanks, Ann. I hope you get a chance to make them!
That shortbread crust is so delicious! And love the toffee bits on top…yum!
I am drooling over these toffee bars! How inviting these look!
Thanks so much, Catalina! They go fast!
I’m a toffee snob and these bars were fantastic! Such a great recipe, thank you!
So glad you enjoyed them! Thanks a bunch! 🙂
I love anything with toffee and this is no exception! Looking forward to enjoying this for dessert tonight, indeed!
I hope you enjoyed the toffee! 🙂
I absolutely love older recipes like this. I have many recipes I’ve collected from my grandmother’s recipe box.
Same here! Grandma’s recipes really are the best! 🙂