Almond Toffee Shortbread Cookies

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These Almond Toffee Shortbread Cookies are the perfect holiday cookie to fill out your cookie tray! Made with a hefty helping of butter, almond meal, and chocolate drizzle, these cookie bars are irresistible.

I’m in full-on unapologetic holiday mode. We put our beautiful tree up last weekend but it looks a bit lacking without any gifts under it. I poked and pryed at all the family members to TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT RIGHT NOW so I can rush to get the tree filled with gifts. To keep my holiday momentum from deflating while I waited for them to respond, I pulled out the fir scented candle, my big slippers, put on my favorite jazz holiday record, and headed into the kitchen for a weekend of holiday themed baking.

I’ve been really obsessed with digging up family recipes these past few years (mostly because we have few and far between – besides the unspeakable jello mold that I refuse to write about – and I’m looking to change that). We have exactly 3 holiday family cookie recipes: 1 of which was always my favorite growing up and is made with an obscene amount of green food coloring (and basically taste like crunchy butter…in a good way), one of which is a chocolate pizza recipe that my mother always made for our teachers, and the last is these Almond Toffee Shortbread Cookies. My family makes two variations of this cookie recipe: the traditional one has you press the dough out onto a jello roll pan so that the dough is so thin that it crisps up like toffee and has nuts on top. Then there is the thicker shortbread version (which I made here) which yields a softer cookie and gets it’s toffee flavor from the toffee crumble on top. Both are delicious cookies but my loyalty is with the second version.

My family doesn’t have many family recipes but we do a cookie tray tradition. Every Christmas, my mom makes the three classic recipes (mentioned above), we then spend a day making cookies we’ve found recipes for throughout the year (we both love trying new recipes), and my aunt brings a big box of cookies from her favorite neighborhood bakery in Chicago. We throw them all onto a plate together and viola! It’s dessert that lasts through the week of family meals, happy hours, and gift opening.

Growing up, the cookie tray was always full, it did not matter if it was the first day family had arrived or if they had been there for a week. I used to think it was magic when I was little but I have learned the little trick my mom uses, which is stashing all of the ‘extra’ cookies in tins in the chilly garage in order to refill the tray every afternoon.

For these Almond Toffee Shortbread Cookies, I used both Bob’s Red Mill Organic Unbleached All Purpose White Flour and their Organic Almond Flour. I love how Bob’s Red Mill Almond Meal is ground from whole, blanched almonds for a nice little protein boost in your baking (get a coupon for the flours here). The cookies also end up with the slightest nut profile that makes these shortbread cookies irresistible. I also used half white chocolate and milk chocolate for the topping to create a marbled appearance; you can use all of one kind of chocolate if that is easier for you.

Almond Toffee Shortbread Cookies recipe below:

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Almond Toffee Shortbread Bars

These Almond Toffee Shortbread Cookies are the perfect holiday cookie to fill out your cookie tray! Made with a hefty helping of butter, almond meal, and chocolate drizzle, these cookie bars are irresistible.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Sweets

Servings: 16

Calories: 299 kcal

Author: Shelly Westerhausen

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter , room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups Bob Mill's Organic All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup Bob Mill's Organic Almond Flour
• 4 oz milk chocolate , melted
• 4 oz white chocolate , melted
• 1 cup chopped toffee pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 8x10 baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In the mixing bowl fitted on a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar together over medium speed until light and fluffy, about five minutes.
3. Lower mixer to medium-low speed and add in the yolk and vanilla until completely mixed.
4. Slowly add in all-purpose flour and almond flour until completely combined.
5. Use a spatula to transfer the dough into prepared baking sheet and press down into an even layer.
6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until browned on the top.
7. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
8. Drizzle melted milk and white chocolate over the shortbread and spread out evenly with a spatula (I swirled the spatula around a little to make the chocolate marbled).
9. Sprinkle with toffee and cut into 1 inch squares.

Nutrition Facts

Almond Toffee Shortbread Bars

Amount Per Serving

Calories 299 Calories from Fat 162

% Daily Value*

Fat 18g28%

Saturated Fat 10g63%

Cholesterol 44mg15%

Sodium 114mg5%

Potassium 75mg2%

Carbohydrates 32g11%

Fiber 1g4%

Sugar 21g23%

Protein 2g4%

Vitamin A 380IU8%

Calcium 41mg4%

Iron 1mg6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.