Recipe: toffee bark

Need a quick recipe for one of the many seasonal potlucks? I whipped these up from the Mother’s recipe last night for a lunch with my appliqué pals this afternoon. Very easy, very tasty, and very fattening—but calories don’t count this month, right? You could make them slightly less offensive to the waistline by substituting saltines for the Club crackers (as the original recipe had it, apparently), but they wouldn’t be as buttery-tasty.

Ingredients

• 1 box Club crackers (a 16-ounce box will do 2 batches in an 11×17" pan)
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar (packed)
• Chocolate chips to taste (typically the better part of a 12-ounce package)
• Chopped almonds, pecans, etc. (optional)
• Nonstick cooking spray

 

Preparation

1. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cover the cookie sheet with a single solid layer of crackers.
3. Heat the butter and sugar in a medium pan on the stove until foamy, stirring to prevent burning.
4. Pour the butter-sugar mixture over the crackers in the cookie sheet. Spread the mixture over the crackers evenly with a spatula.
5. Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven. While still hot, sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. When they’ve melted, spread them into an even layer (if necessary, pop the pan back into the oven briefly to help melt the chocolate). If desired, sprinkle bits of almonds, pecans, or whatever you have on hand over the chocolate—I had walnuts waiting for butter tarts, so that’s what I used.
7. When the cookie sheet has cooled, put it in the fridge to harden the bark (I left it overnight, but a few hours is probably plenty). Break the bark into pieces and store in the fridge.