As great as they are, chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles sometimes feel tired. They’re reliable standards, but the cookie world can be so much more. Therefore, in 2019, Shiri and Jamie will embark on the Great Cookie Challenge – a shared exploit during which we try to make 50 new-to-us cookies. Grab a glass of milk and your spirit of cookie adventure.

Cookie #4: Toffee Bars (Shiri)

Jamie and I engaged this week in the ages-old debate: Are bars and brownies cookies? And it’s important because we wouldn’t want to be accused to cheating on our challenge; we have standards, after all.

Ask a million bakers and you’ll get a million answers, and we weren’t sure which way we were going to go until I picked up my second library haul of the week, which included The Perfect Cookie: Your Ultimate Guide to Foolproof Cookies, Brownies & Bars from America’s Test Kitchen. Lack of Oxford comma aside, they’re a culinary authority, and if they’re going to include cookies, bars, and brownies in the same book, Jamie and I felt it was safe for us to include them in the same family of baked goods for the purposes of our big, dumb, baking thing.

Good news because my mom’s birthday was this past weekend and, because of work and the kids’ schedules, I didn’t have time to make a cake as I normally would. I did, however, have time to make the toffee bars from The Perfect Cookie (p. 306).

I ended up having to bake the shortbread-ish first layer for about 10 minutes longer than suggested by the recipe, but it is Arctic cold in my kitchen at the moment so my oven may not be up to temp. I’d start keeping a close eye on these about 5 minutes before they’re “supposed” to be done – in my experience, bars like this can go from raw to burned in what seems like 30 seconds. Also yes, you want them to be hot when you put the chocolate on to let it melt, but give it the full 5 minutes before you spread or the shortbread will crack and peel.

I used sliced, toasted almonds on my toffee bars, as that’s what I had, and I actually gave them a second toast in a dry pan on the stove. Nuts are another thing you need to watch really closely when toasting; pull them off as soon as they start to brown or they will burn and smell awful.

I expected these bars to be super sweet – what with the sugar and the double toffee and the milk chocolate – but all of the ingredients combined into something pretty mellow for a dessert. They were a huge hit, even with my mom who is most definitely a cake lover. But she and my dad asked to keep the extras, which is a rare thing for two people who try very hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Will definitely make again.