Toffee crunch cookies

This toffee cookie is both crisp and chewy – in a good way.

After the Soft Toffee Cookie experiment, you'd think I'd lay off toffee cookies for awhile. Too sweet, remember? Do I listen to myself? Not really. Still had a bag of toffee bits to use, the one that was just straight toffee bits, not the one that was bits of milk chocolate toffee. I compensated by chopping up a toffee chocolate Cadbury milk bar slab I picked up last time I was running through Heathrow. Because London and chocolate....

Anyway, not only do I not listen to myself but I also went against instinct not to try this recipe because it only used granulated sugar for sweetening. In my experience, a cookie that only has granulated sugar typically ends up being too sweet. As opposed to also having brown sugar which would at least give you some caramel flavor, like a chocolate chip cookie. Did I listen to myself about that either? No.

The good news is listening to myself is overrated. Because the gamble paid off. This wasn't soft like the other toffee cookie but was crisp and crunchy in a good, chewy way. It wasn't too sweet (I've had sweeter) and was pretty good. Who knew?? The only thing I would suggest is to make these a little smaller than what I did. Normally I like to scoop out big cookie dough balls, at least the size of golf balls because I like thick, chubby cookies. But since these spread to uniform thinness, they made for large, thin cookies, something I normally don't like. But the taste and texture of these overcame my usual prejudice. I would make them into small dough balls to get normal-sized cookies.

Toffee crunch cookies

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups chopped Heath Bar pieces (~8 1.4-ounce bars)

1. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.

2. In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and add vanilla.

3. Add in the flour mixture until just combined then fold in the Heath Bar bits. Portion into dough balls slightly smaller than golf-ball size, cover and chill for at least 1 hour or freeze until ready to bake.

4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls on sheet.

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges are just beginning to brown. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

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