Toffee Bar Cookies

Today I'm sharing one of the most fabulous, Christmas-y cookies out there. At least in my opinion.

They come from Tasha Tudor's fabulous little cookbook, and are a great recipe to incorporate into your holiday baking schedule.

My mother used to make them every December, and when it came time for me to be the household cookie maker I was thrilled to discover that they are also ridiculously easy. So easy in fact, my sister I made a couple batches last week while drinking a little wine, and they still turned out great.

Which is more than I can say for these beauties...

Cookie fail!

Believe it or not, they were supposed to be thumprint cookies. They didn't quite turn out. Don't drink and bake, friends -- I'm still not sure what happened. (I'm gonna blame it on the recipe though... it was flawed, I'm sure.)

Anyhoosies. Back to the no-fail toffee bar recipe, which is apparently much more my speed.

Cream butter and sugar and an egg yolk together, add some vanilla. Mix in flour.

Move the dough to a small pan. This recipe is adaptable; you can use a small cookie sheet, a 9x13 cake pan, whatevs. Use your hands to press the dough into the pan evenly then bake for around 15 minutes or until it's lightly golden on top.

You don't want to overbake it unless you like your cookies crunchier, so watch it because the time will depend on what size pan you're using. I usually check after 13 minutes and end up going with 15-18 minutes. You can see that the pans we used weren't the same size, so there was a couple minutes difference in the baking time.

When it's done, sprinkle with chocolate chips, and after a couple minutes you'll be able to spread them over the top of the cookie.

Sprinkle nuts on top if that's your thing, let it set up for a bit and cut them into whatever size Christmas cookies your little heart desires.

Unfortunately, my heart desires that size.

Tasha Tudor Toffee Bars

1 c. softened butter

1 c. brown sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp. vanilla (This might not be in the original version of the Tasha Tudor recipe... I add it anyway)

2 c. flour

1 c. chocolate chips

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Cream butter and sugar, then add egg yolk and vanilla. Add the flour and mix well. Spread the dough into a prepared 10 x 13 pan. Bake at 350°F for about 15 minutes or until the top of the cookie is lightly browned.

Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips. Let melt and spread the chocolate evenly over the top. Sprinkle with nuts, score and cut into pieces.