Cheese-It Toffee Bark

Squeezing in another holiday recipe from my blog, What's Up, Cupcake?  This toffee is so easy and delicious; and would be great to bag up as gifts or even to bring in to the office or to a holiday party.  It's definitely a conversation piece... cheese-it toffee?  Yes, it works and it tastes amazing!  Thanks to Vanilla Sugar Blog who introduced me to this awesome recipe!

The recipe is super easy, super fast to put together, and only has 5 ingredients, the majority of which you probably have.  I just had to go out to get the jumbo cheese-its, though the regular size would work if you can't find them.  I also had to get milk chocolate chips, as I usually work with semi-sweet and darker.  If you don't have cheese-its in your area, I imagine a club cracker or one such as Ritz would work as well.  Semi-sweet chocolate would also be an option if you don't have milk chocolate on hand.  When possible, stick with the original ingredients - you won't regret it.

Cheese-It Toffee Bark

Recipe from Vanilla Sugar Blog

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
1 cup, packed light brown sugar
2 bags of 11.05 ounces of milk chocolate chips
Approx ½ box of the Big-size Cheez-It’s, depending on your pan size (use the big ones, as they cover more room)
1 cup of crushed toasted pecans (or walnuts or whatever you crave)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Line jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Or just use a non-stick jelly roll pan. I recommend the latter, as it makes it very easy to remove the toffee.
3. Lay a flat layer of Cheez-It crackers out on the foil. Cover any gaps with additional cheese-its.  It's ok if it's not completely flat.

Just out of the oven.

4. In a saucepan, melt the sugar and butter until a boil is reached. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 3-4 minutes or until mixture is thickened and sugar is completely dissolved. Pour this mixture over the crackers and spread to coat evenly. Do not mix! Just pour, and fill in any gaps with a spatula.
5. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 5-8 minutes, or until the toffee becomes bubbly. Turn off oven, then take out of oven and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Then sprinkle on the chocolate chips. But tray back in oven to help the chips melt a bit. When chips are melted a bit (about a minute in the oven), spread them into an even layer like you would frosting a cake. After done spreading the chocolate, sprinkle on the chopped nuts or whatever else you want to add.

Spread the soft chocolate until all of the cheese-its and caramel are covered

Sprinkle the nuts, then let cool.

6. Let cool and/or refrigerate until hardened. Once cooled and firm, then break into pieces.  Bag or transfer to an air-tight container.

I refrigerated mine overnight which made it the perfect consistency to break into pieces.  The squares of the cheese-its make this really easy too as they generally want to break at seam points.