Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

My mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies.  I love toffee, and so do most of my co-workers, so I thought I would take her recipe and add toffee chips.  As I was mixing my dough, I realized I didn’t have enough white flour, but I did have some wheat flour, so I substituted in a cup of wheat flour, and it was delicious!  One of the wonderful things about this recipe is that substitutes are allowed and even encouraged.  I would love to hear your variations on this recipe.
Ingredients

• 2 sticks butter (softened)
• 3/4 Cup white sugar
• 1 Cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons vanilla
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 Cups white flour
• 1 Cup wheat flour
• 1 bag Heath toffee bits for baking
• 1/2 bag milk chocolate chips

Supplies

• Mixer & Bowl
• Medium cookie scoop
• Spatula (for scraping)
• Parchment paper
• Cookie sheet(s)
• Spatula (for lifting off sheet)
• Cooling Racks

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar

3. Scrape down bowl
4. Add eggs and mix well
5. While mixing, add vanilla

6. Add flour, salt, and baking soda to mixture, and mix just until combined
7. Add toffee bits and chocolate chips to dough, mix together

8. Cut parchment paper to fit cookie sheet (no cleaning pans—my favorite!)
9. Use cookie scoop to place 12 balls of dough on the sheet

10. Bake for 13 minutes
11. Allow to cool on racks

12. Yum, Yum, Yum

Tips

• Differences in altitude, and humidity require differing amounts of flour (dough should be stiff, not sticky, but moist)
• You should be able to touch the dough without dough coming off on your finger, but your finger should feel slick
• If the cookies come out too flat, add more flour to the dough
• You can substitute butter flavored crisco for butter
• You can use more wheat flour, or more white flour if you have a preference
• Try different additions to satiate your cravings
• Make a double-batch and freeze half of them for later: scoop the balls onto a cookie sheet, stick in freezer, place frozen dough balls in a zipper plastic bag.  When you are ready to use them, take them out of freezer and thaw on cookie sheet before baking like normal.
• Have fun!

Almond Toffee

This recipe makes a delicious batch of toffee to give as a gift, share with friends, or eat yourself!  My co-workers recently claimed that this rivals Enstrom's.  I have had many successes with this recipe, but there are also times when the mixture breaks (separates) for no apparent reason.  Make sure to use fresh butter to help avoid breakage.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup (2 Sticks) Butter
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Water
• 1-2 Tablespoons Light Corn Syrup
• 1 Cup Almonds (chopped--if you cannot find chopped, chop in a blender or food processor)
• 1 Bag Chocolate Chips (milk or semi-sweet depending on your preference)

Tools:

• Jelly Roll Pan (a cookie sheet with a small rim)
• Large Pot
• Wooden Spoon
• Small angled spatula

Directions:

1. Spread about 2/3 cup almonds onto the jelly roll pan

2. Combine butter, sugar, water, and corn syrup in large pot
3. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil, heat a little higher than medium on the stove (different stoves and altitudes may require different settings--often recipes call for medium, but I have found a little higher works better for me)

4. Cook until the ingredients turn a light brown (mine usually takes between 20 and 30 minutes--typically, the longer you cook it, the harder the toffee will be)
5. Quickly pour the mixture over the almonds on the jelly roll pan
6. Use the back of the spoon to spread the mixture as flat and smooth as possible--you have to work quickly because it hardens almost immediately

7. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the toffee (for a thinner layer of chocolate, don't use the entire bag of chocolate)

8. Wait about a minute for the chocolate to melt, then spread with the spatula to create a smooth, even layer of chocolate

9. Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 cup of almonds on the melted chocolate
10. Allow to cool (can cool in the fridge)
11. Break into pieces and enjoy!