What's for Dinner: Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars (with Pecans)

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I apparently have more of a sweet tooth than I thought, considering the amount of desserts I've been making lately.

I found a recipe online for it, and played around with it to my liking. The amount of butter in this scares me, however, so next time I'll definitely play around with the amount of butter as well and work on lowering that.

Again, these bars are sweet, so I'd recommend cutting them into tiny pieces. I cut mine into 40 bars today (8 by 5's), but next time I'll probably cut each of those bars diagonally as well [to get 80 small triangles]. A small piece goes a long way.

Anyways, here's what you need:

• 2 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup of  light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) of unsalted butter, chilled
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2 cups of [milk] chocolate chips
• 1 cup of chopped pecans
• 1 14-oz can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup of Heath chocolate toffee bits [amount will vary depending on your preference]
• Non-stick cooking spray

How I made it:

1. First things first: preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Take a 13×9-inch [oven-safe] pan, spray it with non-stick cooking spray and then line it with parchment. This will help tremendously with the clean-up process, as well as easily removing the bars once they are cooled and cut.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine your flour and brown sugar. Then, cut in your chilled butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs [can be done with a fork, but will take more of an effort plus time]. 
3. In a separate [smaller] bowl, mix together your egg and vanilla extract. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir everything nicely to combine. Mix in 1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips (reserve 1/2 cup) and your 1 cup of pecans. Reserve 1 and 1/2 cups of the crumb mixture.
4. Take the remainder of the crumb mixture, and press it into the bottom of the [oven-safe] pan. Bake it in your preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove from  your oven and pour your can of sweetened condensed milk immediately over the hot crust. Make sure to spread the condensed milk evenly, making sure the whole surface area is covered. Reserving 1/4 cup of your toffee bits, evenly sprinkle the remaining 3/4 cup of your toffee bits over sweetened condensed milk. Next, evenly sprinkle the rest of crumb mixture that you set aside earlier. Finally, sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. 
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until it is golden brown. Immediately after you remove it from the oven, sprinkle the rest of your toffee bits on top. Then the hardest part: allow it to cool completely before cutting.

Easily makes 40 nice sized bars.

P.S. This post is a part of my "What's for Dinner" series, where I share what I've been cooking and my recipes. Grab and share my button:

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