Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

With Halloween now over it’s time for me to start getting my Christmas baking in order.  That means starting on all the different cookie doughs I will be making.  I usually end up making approximately 60 dozen cookies at Christmastime.  No, we don’t eat them all ourselves, they get given away to family and co-workers.  Although we do keep a good portion for ourselves, we have to have something to leave for Santa on Christmas Eve!

I’ve definitely streamlined this process over the years.  It used to be that I would try and make all the dough and bake everything off in one weekend, only to swear I never wanted to see another cookie again.

Well, with age and experience under my belt, I’ve found a way to make this task slightly easier.  It still takes me two full days to bake off all the cookies, but I spread out making the dough over a week, usually making one or two different kinds of cookie dough a day and then portioning them out, chilling the dough to firm them up and then freezing them in large bags or trays until it’s time to bake them off.  I try and do this at least a month in advance.

So today it starts.  I’ve been making these cookies for nearly 16 years now.  They are the most requested cookies I make.  Everyone absolutely loves them and I am always more than happy to share the recipe with whomever wishes to have it.  They are a sweet cookie, which is why I do tend to make them smaller, but everyone (kids and adults alike) loves them.

You can make these a couple of different ways, depending on the end result you would like.  You can melt the butter and bake them off right away for a very flat and crispy cookie or use softened butter, which is what I do and have a more softer cookie on the inside but still somewhat crunchy on the outside.

First off, start by creaming your butter and then slowly adding in the sugars (both white and brown – I use dark brown sugar but if you wish you can use light brown).

Then slowly add in the eggs, 1 at a time.  Along with a splash of vanilla (I use vanilla bean paste, but you can use vanilla extract).

While this is mixing up, measure out your flour, baking powder and baking soda and salt and whisk it together (no need to sift, just a quick whisk will do).  Slowly add in the flour mixture (I use a 1 cup measure) cup by cup, stopping the machine to add it in slowly or you will get a big puff of flour.

Then comes the stuff that makes these cookies so amazing.  A full bag of milk chocolate chips (it has to be milk chocolate chips, sorry, no substituting this for semi-sweet) and a full bag of toffee chips.  I know it seems like a lot and well, it is.  And give this a good mix.  (Now I made a double batch which barely fit in my mixer – try not to do this to your mixer, mine was really annoyed with me).  All of this can be done by hand if you do not have a stand mixer, as that is how I used to do this.

Once everything is mixed together really well, I scoop out the dough using a dough scooper (these are the best thing ever!  If you don’t have these little scoops – ask for them for Christmas, your birthday, Easter, or just because you’ve been good, but they make portioning the cookies out so much easier).  The scoop that I used for this is 1 Tbsp. in size.  You can make these larger if you wish, but this really is the perfect size for these.

The dough will seem dry while you are scooping it out, so I scoop it into my hand and give it a slight “squeeze” to push the dough together.

Place all the little dough balls on baking sheets and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour to let them firm up and chill.  Of course if you have room in your freezer to place the sheets of dough in there to freeze, then do this.  Once they have firmed up, place them in a freezer bag, labelled with the type of cookie and baking temperature and time on the bag for future reference and freeze for up to 3 months.

 I had to bake off a dozen of these, because my older son had the day off from school and noticed the trays of cookie dough in the fridge and in stead of saying hello, good morning or any of the sort, all he said was when will the cookies be done.

When you’re ready to bake the cookies, either from the fridge or from frozen (no need to thaw) preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  They get baked for 12 to 14 minutes on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Do not over bake these as they will lose that soft interior.  They will look slightly under done when you first take them out of the oven, but that is okay, that’s just all the toffee in the cookies.   Let them cool for at least 2 to 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Try and wait at least 10 minutes before eating one of the cookies as they are quite molten with all the toffee and will burn the inside of your mouth if you don’t wait (I speak from experience).

Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

(makes approximately 6 dozen cookies)

150 grams butter – softened (2/3 cup if you don’t have a scale)

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 2/3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 pkg milk chocolate chips

1 pkg toffee chips

Cream the butter for approx. 2 minutes.  Slowly add in the white and brown sugar and cream until light and fluffy.

Add in eggs, one at a time, as well as the vanilla.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Whisk to blend well.

Slowly add in the flour to the butter/sugar/egg mixture.  Once well combined add in the chocolate chips and toffee chips.

Portion to the dough into balls (1 Tbsp.) and place on baking sheet in fridge to firm up approx. 1 hour.

If baking right away:  preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper and place 12 cookie dough balls on baking sheet.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.  Do not over bake.  Allow to cool for 2 minutes and then remove to cooling rack.  Store in an air tight container.

If freezing:  place dough balls in a freezer bag which has been labelled with the type of cookie as well, with the baking temperature and baking time written on the bag.

When ready to bake the frozen cookie dough, place the frozen dough balls on the parchment lined baking sheet.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Bake for 14 minutes.  Allow to cool for 2 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Store in an airtight container.  They will start to get hard after a couple of days, this is due to the amount of toffee in the cookies.

*it is very important that you use parchment paper, as with all the toffee in these cookies they will stick to the pans and you will have an extremely difficult time getting them from the pan.