We Need Cookies Right Now.
Start to finish in a half-hour, with ingredients probably already in your pantry and frig
Hi,
We need the calming effect of cookies today. Something that pairs well with coffee or tea to tamp down the chaos, global, and seasonal.
Something like my mom’s Toffee Squares recipe, circa 1972.
Hers was not the only iteration of the popular brown-sugar/flour/butter crust topped with chocolate. She sent it to me, a young bride living far away from “home,” to make sure I could replicate a childhood favorite.
The recipe was connective tissue as I entered independent adulthood. And now, as I sit squarely in Life’s 4th quarter, there remains a connection to a calmer time.
No shopping for fancy ingredients; I’d bet most are already in your pantry, or can be found at your neighborhood mini-mart.
I’m happy to share this recipe with all subscribers, a holiday something from me to you.
x,Jane
Toffee Squares | Ingredients
2 Cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour, unsifted
1 Cup/2 sticks (227 gams) softened, unsalted butter
1 Cup brown sugar (213 grams) - light brown works best
1 Teaspoon (5 grams) vanilla extract
1/2 Teaspoon (3 grams) table salt
1 Egg yolk
Milk or semi-sweet chocolate (approx 7 oz/198 grams)
Chopped nuts, e.g. walnuts, pecans, etc, if desired
Directions:
Mix ingredients, except for the chocolate. Spread on a large (13x17”; 33 x 43 cm) baking pan or baking sheet with sides
Bake 20 minutes at 300°F (150 °C)
During baking, melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Keep chocolate in molten form.
Spread the chocolate mixture over the crust while it is still hot, and sprinkle with nuts.
Cut into squares immediately.
Yummo. I get a reminder photo of my Mum and I baking our last Christmas cake together (from 2012) every year thanks to Apple memories. I stop for a minute and have a quick chat to her. Food is such a connector.
YUM. And that pic of the handwritten recipe fills me with nostalgia — I sent some of the ones I had from my mother and mother-in-law to my new DIL as part of a family memory project and they ended up getting lost in the mail for over a year! Eventually they showed up, but if I had it to do over again I wouldn't have mailed off the originals.