I hadn’t thought about these chocolate toffee treats in years but when I spent a week in Boston recently, I found my mother’s recipe box and a couple of copies of a cookbook, Word of Mouth, she helped write for the local animal rescue group. Somehow I got fixated on these treats she’d whip up before a game or movie night. Makes about 16 pieces.
Trivial Pursuit Chocolate Toffee Treats
- 1/3 cup butter, melted (plus more butter for greasing the pan)
- 2 cups oatmeal
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 or 2 squares bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 cup nuts, toasted and chopped (optional)
Preheat the oven to 450°. Grease a 7″x11″ pan and set aside. Pour the melted butter over the oatmeal in a bowl and mix well. Add everything except the chocolate and nuts and pack the mixture firmly into the greased pan.
Bake for 12 minutes —it should be golden and bubbling. Remove from the oven.
Combine the chocolate in a bowl and sprinkle it on top of the hot oatmeal mix, smoothing it out, after letting it melt for a few minutes, with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle with the nuts, pressing them gently into the top.
Let the toffee cool, cut, serve, and enjoy!
My verdict:
It wasn’t quite the toffee bars of my childhood, but they were pretty good. For some reason, I thought the oats (old fashion Quaker Oats) were too prominent. Maybe a different type, or a quick blitz through a food processor would make them smaller and less dominant. I only used 1 cup of chocolate chips because I wasn’t sure about the recipe and that was fine. It’s possible that more chocolate would have made the oats less pronounced.
I used a 9″x9″ square pan and that worked well. No nuts, because of allergies, which may explain why they weren’t the bars of my childhood…
