Christmas Toffee Bars

Christmas Time! My favorite time of year! It's a ginormous excuse to bake lots of cookies!! The Christmas Toffee Bars were a new addition to my holiday repertoire this year. They came out of the Holiday Cookies edition of Cuisine at Home - one of my favorite cooking magazines (although they don't typically have a lot of baking recipes in there, they offer tons of handy tips, reviews, and beautiful photos - I love to find yummy-looking photos of meals for Hubby to make for dinner!) My mom got me the special Holiday Cookies edition as a stocking stuffer but decided to give it to me before Christmas so that I could use it! :) These were a cinch to make and were delicious!

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups vanilla wafer cookies, crushed
3/4 cup brown sugar, divided
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, or almonds), toasted

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350º. Butter a 9" x 13" glass baking dish.

Crush vanilla wafers in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin. Combine crushed cookies with 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup melted butter in a bowl.

Press the mixture into the prepared dish, using a measuring cup to "tamp" it down. Bake for 8 minutes, or just until set.

Melt 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar together in a saucepan, stirring to blend. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil 1 minute without stirring.

Immediately pour the mixture over the hot crust, then return the pan to the oven. Bake an additional 10 minutes, remove, and cool for 2 minutes.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the toffee and let stand until they're glossy, about 5 minutes. Spread the chocolate over the toffee using an offset spatula, then sprinkle the nuts on top. Cool bars completely.

Remove toffee from the pan. To break it into pieces, insert the tip of a paring knife into the toffee and twist the knife.

CREDIT: Cuisine at Home's Holiday Cookies - Gifts From Your Kitchen, p. 86, c. 2006