Have you been singing the rainy-day blue like many of us have? I may have actually seen Hubby drawing up plans for an ark or maybe it was a submarine. Just not sure. I’ll keep you posted on how that progresses.
When it rains or snows or turns just to a gray day, that’s when I tend to bake. If the sun is shining, I’m not so inclined to be in the kitchen much. So with the multiple rainy days we’ve had lately (sorry California, wish I could ship some of our excess out to you), I’ve been in baking overload. These Chocolate-Toffee-Pecan Bars were born of my passing thought to cleaning out the deep freezer. I had actually gone downstairs to see what inspiration might pour over me if I opened the freezer when I realized it was way overdue for an organizational effort. Only that didn’t last long when the thunder and lightning started up in full force. So I grabbed one of the boxes of yellow cake mix, a bag of toffee chips, a partially used bag of chocolate chips and some Arkansas pecans (all leftover from Christmas baking by the way) and headed upstairs.
There would be no cleaning and reorganizing of the freezer on this day.
I wasn’t quite sure where I was headed with the ingredients I had selected, but I knew lightning would strike (figuratively, I hoped) and something magical would be born. Rain also brings out the dramatic and melodramatic in me in case you had not noticed.
It wasn’t an “in the mood for cookie or cake day.” Those required a little more effort than my lazy self was allowing. But I had made the commitment. I was NOT placing the ingredients back in the all-too-full freezer. So here you have it. Chocolate-Toffee-Pecan Bars. And they’re pretty darn good even if I do say so.
Give ‘em a try and let me know what you think.
Unless it’s sunny. Then go outside and plant. Or dig. Or take a walk while you can. The rain will return soon, and I suppose we should count our blessings for it.
- 1 16-ounce yellow cake mix (I used Betty Crocker.)
- 6 Tablespoons softened butter or margarine
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 8-ounce package Heath toffee baking chips
- 2 cups semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13-inch pan with nonstick spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. Spray the paper with the nonstick spray.
- Combine the cake mix with the softened butter and one egg. Mix thoroughly.
- Press the cake mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Mix together the remaining egg, condensed milk, and vanilla until thoroughly blended.
- Stir in the toffee chips and pecans.
- Spread this mixture over the cake mixture and top with the chocolate chips.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. The center will not be set completely.
- Cool completely before slicing.
- Store in an airtight container.
- I set my oven for 20 minutes on 350 degrees convection and start watching at three minute intervals. Be sure to rotate the pan at the 20-minute mark. It will normally take 25-30 minutes for the bars to cook, but they burn easily around the edges if you don't watch carefully.
- This makes 12 large bars. That's larger than what we would typically eat so I suggest cutting them in half. These are very rich.
