English Toffee Bars No. 2

October 3, 2018 |

The original Cookies by Bess cookie book has several recipes that say “No. 1” and “No. 2”. One of my family’s most favorite Cookies by Bess cookie of all is English Toffee Bars No. 1. I haven’t posted this recipe and blog yet, I’m saving it for a future post. I’ve never even considered making the English Toffee Bars No. 2 recipe, until now!

I LOVE this cookie! It is so different from its sister cookie and my favorite, English Toffee bars No. 1 in so may ways, but is also a great cookie with wonderful and unique flavor. I’m so happy I tired them and so excited to share them and the recipe with you!

It was difficult deciding the cookie difficulty for these English Toffee Bars No. 2 cookies. I think it falls somewhere between 1-star and 2-stars. Maybe I need to have a 1 ½ – star rating ? I’ll settle on 2-star difficulty because of the need to press the dough into the baking pan and having to whip up the egg whites.

I pulled all my ingredients and baking tools together. Its interesting to me when a cookie recipe calls for “cake flour”. Cake flour has less protein than all purpose flour, so you should expect a more delicate texture in your cookie. With these English Toffee Bars No. 2, I think the cake flour make the cookie richer and crunchier.

I didn’t need to make any adjustments to the recipe and the cookie dough came together nicely using my Kitchen Aid. The cinnamon was a nice surprise, an ingredient that makes these cookies completely different from their sister cookie. Once again, the type of nut wasn’t listed in the recipe. I decided on pecans because I thought their rich flavor with the butter and cinnamon would be awesome…I was right!

Once all mixed together, I got ready to spread the dough in the baking sheet.

I used a small spatula to spread the cookie dough in the 10 x 15 inch pan non-stick pan. Because of the non-stick, I didn’t really need to grease the pan, but I put down a small amount of margarine just to make sure there were no sticking issues after baking.

The cookie dough spread very nicely! It’s such a smooth dough. It looks so yummy with the chopped nuts! And of course, it tastes GREAT!

After spreading the dough, I beat up the egg whites. I thought I knew what “frothy” meant, but decided to look it up anyway, just to make sure I didn’t overdo it with my beating. According to Google, frothy means “full of or covered with a mass of small bubbles.” It took all of about 60 seconds to get the egg white frothy. Easy enough to spread the frothy egg whites on the dough.

Finally, I sprinkled the remaining chopped pecans on top.

So pretty and ready to bake!

I baked the cookies for the full 30 minutes. I could have taken them out 5 minutes early for a bit softer cookie, but my guess is that these English Toffee Bars No. 2 are meant to be crunchy. The finished cookies don’t look much different from the before baking picture. Just a little more brown around the edges. I let them cool for about 15 minutes before cutting into small bar cookies.

Just check out this cookie! The toasted pecans on top, the baked cinnamon and the perfect consistency of the cookie itself. Amazing! And the flavor all together are also Amazing!

I know my Mom hasn’t make this recipe before, so I called her to let her know that English Toffee Bars No. 2 are very different than their sister cookie, and our family favorite, but they have their own unique flavor that definitely isn’t second place! ? These cookies will go perfect with a nice cup of coffee, some vanilla ice cream, or just by themselves.

Also, I will mention that I think these cookies taste like an English version of Scottish Shortbread cookies with some cinnamon and nuts added. They truly are a unique and wonderful cookie!

I hope you try these English Toffee Bars No. 2 cookies! I promise to post English Toffee Bars No. 1 soon, in the meantime, English Toffee bars No. 2 are worth a try…I bet you’ll make them again and again!

XXOO!

Janet