English Toffee Cookies
Seeing as my Mom is from Scotland, I should be a fan of English Toffee… right? Well, no. The Scots fight with the English more often than not.
Apparently this year, the Girl Scouts are expanding their sweets sales into candy! One of the girls that I coach is also in Girl Scouts, so I thought I would help support her. By buying the candy, making cookies with it, and then giving it back to the team. It’s the giving season, right?
Speaking of the Holidays, we are in full Christmas mode at the moment. Christmas tree, Christmas music, holiday berry candles, and all of it. Oh yeah, and Archie’s new sweater <3
The Holidays also mean new baked goods… on an almost daily basis.. meaning I need another Costco trip to buy 7 lbs of butter…
Oddly enough, I’m not the biggest fan of toffee, but I do love it in any baked goods. The little bit of crunchiness or bite you get from the pieces in the cookie is SO good. Combine that with the soft chewiness that you get from adding my secret ingredient (find out in the recipe!!) to the cookie dough, it’s a win-win.
It’s likely assumed, but these cookies were a hit with the volleyball team, a perfect mix of subtle crunch and saltiness, with the sweet vanilla flavor from the cookie. Yum..
To Make the Cookies:
To start making these scrumptious cookies, cream together the butter and both sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer. If you are doing this by hand… good luck 🙂 If you are using a handheld mixer, it’s much easier and is going to give you the best results. Obviously, a stand mixer is the best choice (check out the holiday deals if you can, I got SUCH a good deal last year on Black Friday). This process will take 3-4 minutes, but really feels like 20. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl once or twice to be sure all the butter is mixed in, especially if you didn’t give it the time to get to room temperature like I always do.
Once the butter and sugar are creamed, you’ll notice the color start to lighten and it will sound whippy (?) in the mixer.
Add in the eggs, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda, and my secret ingredient – vanilla instant pudding powder. This will allow for a super moist and chewy cookie. I’m not sure where I learned to do this, but I absolutely LOVE adding it in. In cookies that don’t have a ton of dominant flavors, it also adds a richness to the cookie that is heavenly!
Again, scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Can’t stress this enough!
Slowly (and I mean slowly, unless you are wanting a White Christmas in your kitchen) add in the flour, mixing just until the mixture is combined. We don’t want to over-mix the dough at this point.
Finally, add in the chopped or store-bought toffee pieces and stir them in using a spatula.
Using a small cookie scoop, measure out the cookie dough and immediately scoop onto a greased cookie sheet. Repeat until the cookie dough is all gone.
Place the cookie sheets into the fridge and allow the cookie dough to chill for 30-60 minutes. This will allow the butter to cool again, which will help the cookies hold their shape in the oven. We all know what it’s like to pull flat cookies that have melted together from the oven. This is how you fix it 🙂
10 minutes before you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes or until the edges just start to turn golden brown. I wanted super chewy cookies for this recipe, so I didn’t let them brown very much on the top.
Pull from the oven when they are ready, and allow them to cool on the cookie sheet for 3-4 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
Serve these gorgeous cookies warm, or store them for up to 7 days in an air tight container.
Hope you enjoy! 🙂
English Toffee Cookies
To begin, mix room temperature butter, sugar, and brown sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. We are going to want to cream this until its light and fluffy, so take your time here 🙂
Once the mixture is a couple of shades lighter, add in the eggs, vanilla pudding powder, vanilla extract, salt, and baking soda. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed, until the mixture is full incorporated.
Turn the mixer down to a slow speed, and slowly add in the flour. Be sure not to over-mix here, and if needed, use a spatula to finish combining the dough.
Lastly, add in the English toffee pieces. You can use store bought pieces, or you can chop up some actual chocolate covered English Toffee like I did 😛
Using a small ice cream scoop, measure out the cookie dough into balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Chill the cookie dough in the fridge until the edges of each cookie dough ball is cool to the touch. Leaving the cookies in the fridge, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
When the oven is up to temperature, evenly spread the cookie dough balls across the number of cookie sheets needed (I used 3), and bake for 9-10 minutes.
Check on the cookies at the 9 minute mark, but don't be afraid to leave them in for an additional minute or two as needed. I let the bottom of these brown just a little extra so that we got a nice caramel flavor from the sugars, without being crunchy.
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes, and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling. Serve warm with some beautiful vanilla ice cream (YUMMM)!
Ingredients
Directions
To begin, mix room temperature butter, sugar, and brown sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. We are going to want to cream this until its light and fluffy, so take your time here 🙂
Once the mixture is a couple of shades lighter, add in the eggs, vanilla pudding powder, vanilla extract, salt, and baking soda. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed, until the mixture is full incorporated.
Turn the mixer down to a slow speed, and slowly add in the flour. Be sure not to over-mix here, and if needed, use a spatula to finish combining the dough.
Lastly, add in the English toffee pieces. You can use store bought pieces, or you can chop up some actual chocolate covered English Toffee like I did 😛
Using a small ice cream scoop, measure out the cookie dough into balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Chill the cookie dough in the fridge until the edges of each cookie dough ball is cool to the touch. Leaving the cookies in the fridge, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
When the oven is up to temperature, evenly spread the cookie dough balls across the number of cookie sheets needed (I used 3), and bake for 9-10 minutes.
Check on the cookies at the 9 minute mark, but don't be afraid to leave them in for an additional minute or two as needed. I let the bottom of these brown just a little extra so that we got a nice caramel flavor from the sugars, without being crunchy.
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes, and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling. Serve warm with some beautiful vanilla ice cream (YUMMM)!
