English Toffee Bars

Twelve Days of Cookie Baking — Day 11

Create memories your families and friends will savor for years to come

There’s a heartwarming story behind Barb Simon-Johnson’s English Toffee Bar recipe.

Many years ago when she was first dating the man who would become her husband, Chris Johnson, she baked her mother Norma Simon’s recipe of these simple yet rich, buttery chocolate-covered shortbread. They were one cookie variety among many on a tray she brought to a gathering with Chris’ family.

Chris’ mom, Jacquelyn Johnson, who had been a teacher at St. Boniface School in Cold Spring, had died when he, the youngest child in the family, was only four years old. When his older siblings tasted Barb’s toffee bars that day — several years after their mother’s passing — they remembered them as the very same bars their mother had made. One of them remarked, “These are exactly what Mom used to make for Christmas.”

Barb has continued to make them every year for her own and extended family members. Now her married daughter, Megan Engelmann, returns home each year to bake cookies with Barb. This year they plan to get together soon to create the English toffee bars and a number of the family’s other holiday cookie traditions together: both almond and chocolate mint spritz, almond crescents, double dipped mint cookies, pfeffernusse and assorted candies including fudge, almond toffee, truffles and a salted pecan roll.

“It’s really nice to pass on family traditions to your children,” Barb said. “Both of our children have been involved with the Christmas baking and candy making since they were old enough to help.” CJK

English Toffee Bars

(Barb Simon-Johnson)

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

12 oz. pkg. milk chocolate chips

3/4 cup nuts, chopped (optional)

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add egg yolk, vanilla and flour. Press into greased 9 by 13-inch pan. Put pan in refrigerator to chill while preheating oven.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake crust for 15 minutes.

Remove crust from oven. Sprinkle chocolate chips over crust immediately, letting them soften. Spread melted chocolate over the baked crust and then sprinkle with chopped nuts, if desired. Cool bars before cutting.

Yield: 36 bars

A note from Barb: The crust must be cooler than room temperature when it goes into the oven so that it will hold together during baking. It’s important to keep it in the refrigerator while preheating the oven.

A note from Carol: Barb, the graphic designer/web designer for the St. Cloud Diocese, shared her recipe for pumpkin custard bars in this year’s FFF Thanksgiving collection. She and Chris, her husband of 29 years, and their son Caeleb (12), are members of the Holdingford Five Parish Faith Community.