Toffee Bars

Cindy and I have been in love with this recipe for years. We got it from an older version of the Better Homes and Garden cookbook--it's no longer in their cookbook, which is a shame because it's the best. But here it is for your eating pleasure.

Crust
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup flour

Filling
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. vanilla

Topping*
semi-sweet chocolate chips


For crust, beat 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/4 tsp. salt until combined. Stir in 1 cup flour and then pat mixture into an ungreased 13x9 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 min. or until edges are golden brown. (Will work well with a mixture of white and wheat flour.)

While crust is baking, make filling. Stirring CONSTANTLY,** heat sweetened condensed milk and 2 Tbsp. butter in small saucepan over low heat until bubbly. Then continue heating (and stirring constantly) for about 5 min. more. It will become thick and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Spread on baked layer and bake 12-15 min.

For topping, sprinkle chocolate chips on toffee and return to oven until chips are soft (usually less than 5 min.). Spread chocolate with a rubber spatula. Let toffee bars cool slightly before serving, but remove them from pan and store in another container before completely hard or they will be stuck to the pan forever.

*I no longer have the original recipe for the fudge icing because the chocolate chips are so much easier and just as tasty. Ask Cindy if you want it.

**Also, I'm not kidding about stirring the filling constantly while you are cooking it. Just invest 7 minutes of your life in this and it's easy. Today I let a toddler drag me away for a couple of minutes and it very quickly turned into a black, burned disaster. Just a fair warning.

P.S. I'm trying to figure out how to make these not only taste good, but look good. They are usually a bit ugly because they get crumbly when you take them out of the pan, but you have to take them out early or they get too hard. Next time I'm going to line the pan with parchment paper so I can remove the whole thing from the pan without cutting it, and then once they're cool I'll cut them. I think that will do the trick.