Oh My

When I walk into Trader Joe’s I always check out their display of new products and this past trip I saw a new chocolate bar: 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate Toffee with Walnuts and Pecans. I was envisioning big chunks of nuts and a few toffee bites and figured it was worth a try.

That night I broke off a square to try. And I was wrong, it wasn’t large chunks of “stuff” floating in dark chocolate but was filled with tiny bursts of salty toffee goodness. They’re not lying on the back of the package when they say “It’s a beautiful balance of sweet, salty and chocolate bliss.” This is my weak spot. I had to have just one more square. And yes, it was bliss.


That night when I went to bed all I could think about was making cookies with overflowing with big bites of my new TJ’s find. And this was supposed to be the week I wasn’t going to eat any sugar.

So I went back and bought 10 of the dark chocolate toffee bars and it turns out they also have a 70% Cacao (the magic number!) Caramel with Black Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Bar. Soooo I bought 5 of those too. The checker at Trader Joe’s must have thought I was a real pig.

The caramel bars are oooey gooey good so I froze them for about 15 minutes and then chopped up both the toffee and caramel bars and threw them in chocolate chip cookie dough in lieu of the chocolate chips. The cookies turned out kind of flat and ugly, but after one bite I didn't care what they looked like. It was a genius move if I do say so myself.


Fortunately I don't have to make this choice, but if I could only have one I'd choose the Toffee bar with Walnuts and Pecans.


Salted Toffee Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookies
(Nestle TOLL HOUSE Chocolate Chip Cookies meet Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate “Bliss” Bars)

Ingredients
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 Trader Joe’s 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate Toffee with Walnuts and Pecans 3 oz. bars, chopped
• 2 Trader Joe’s 70% Cacao Caramel with Black Sea Salt 3 oz. Dark Chocolate Bars, chopped

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate toffee and caramel bar chunks. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.