Brown Sugar Toffee Cookies

September 12, 2013

brown sugar + toffee cookies | une gamine dans la cuisine


"If one day it happens
you find yourself with someone you love
in a café at one end
of the Point Mirabeau, at the zinc bar
where wine stands in upward opening glasses,
and if you commit then, as we did, the error
of thinking
one day all this will only be memory,
learn to reach deeper
into the sorrows
to come-to touch
the almost imaginary bones
under the face, to hear under the laughter
the wind crying across the stones. Kiss
the mouth
which tells you, here,
here is the world. This mouth. This laughter. These temple
bones.
The still undanced cadence of vanishing."

~ Galway Kinnell, section 5 of "Little Sleep's Head Sprouting in the Moonlight," from Selected Poems

brown sugar + toffee cookies | une gamine dans la cuisine

Given the tumultuous relationship I've had with the rapid changing of the seasons this year,  I refuse to "do" pumpkin until October-something. I hope that's okay with everyone. I'm just not ready...I am not. Ready. I think toffee is a nice way to bridge the warm leaf-filled rivulet between late summer and early autumn. It's my olive branch, anyway.

Toffee and I need to hang together more. On the rare occasion that I toss a bag into my grocery cart, I end up tossing the poor bag into the back of my cupboard; where it remains until I've run out of chocolate, and peanut butter...and Nutella. I am so happy for last week's lazy reluctance to go shopping - it allowed me to bond with sticky sweet, toffee. (I was also out of eggs!) These cookies are soft, chewy and simply irresistible. If you're a die hard toffee lover, I think you will adore this recipe. The toffee takes center stage and does not compete with any overtly narcissistic chunks of chocolate.

The recipe is relatively smooth and seamless. Yes, there is an eight hour refrigeration time but the dough is egg less, so...you know...*whistle* *whistle*

brown sugar + toffee cookies | une gamine dans la cuisine

Brown Sugar Toffee Cookies
makes about 24-26 cookies

for the cookies
12 Tablespoons (that's 1 1/2 sticks, or 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons tightly packed, light brown sugar (dark will work too)
1/4 cup plain yoghurt
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 oz (about 1 1/3 cup) English toffee bits

method
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and brown sugar until smooth - about 2-5 minutes on med/high speed. Add the yoghurt and almond extract, beat for an additional 5 minutes. Scrape down the edges of the bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt - beat on low speed until just combined. Add the toffee bits and beat until evenly dispersed throughout the dough.

Place a piece of plastic wrap directly over the dough, and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap or tin foil. Chill overnight (or at least eight hours).

Preheat the oven the 375 F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

For each cookie measure out a heaping Tablespoonful of dough. Roll each mound of dough into a tight ball and place onto prepared baking sheet  (leave about 2-inches of space between each cookie).

Bake 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are very light golden brown. {The cookies might puff up whilst they're in the oven - they will de-puff as they're cooling.} Remove the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for about 8 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

brown sugar + toffee cookies | une gamine dans la cuisine

27 comments:

  1. Gorgeous cookies! I'd love to eat a few with my coffee. Like you, I refuse to buy pumpkins until October as I don't yet feel ready to say good bye to the summer...

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  2. almond extract, brown sugar, yogurt, toffee - I am in LOVE with all the ingredients! Pinned! And I only posted my first pumpkin recipe b/c it felt like I 'had to' since everyone else was. But it's still quite warm here and I would have liked another week or two of summer :)

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  3. such a nice combination of ingredients.

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  4. I'm with you - so not ready either. Toffee seems like just the thing to bridge us between seasons, I happily accept your olive branch ;).

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  5. I can't believe those cookies have no eggs! They look wonderful. I'm like you, not quite ready for fall. I will not be posting pumpkin recipes for a while either.

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  6. Valerie can you please give me photography lessons? I'll fly you out and put you up and feed you, too! These are stunning, as usual.

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  7. WOW, these cookies!!!!! The crackle in the top is absolutely perfect. They look so delicious. (And I feel EXACTLY the same way as you about fall!) Thank you for posting, can't wait to try these!

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  8. Toffee is the perfect bridge between summer and fall :) These cookies sound lovely, I especially love the brown sugar in them - I have become extremely hooked on brown sugar these days!

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  9. Yes! Starting with toffee and then moving onto pumpkin sounds perfect, in fact! Those cookies are beautiful and so are the photos! I want to climb through this monitor and do a cookie monster bit on the cookies!

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  10. Cannot wait to try these!!!

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  11. These look SO good! I'm on a bit of a toffee kick myself these days, and these would be PERFECT with an afternoon cup of tea.

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  12. I've already started my pumpkin craze but can't complain because these cookies look fabulous! I'd eat... too many of them!

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  13. I haven't broken out the pumpkin yet...I always anticipate liking it more than I actually do. Apples, however, I am all over :) I love these cookies - anything with brown sugar in the name wins my heart!

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  14. So yummy! I think I have another idea on how to enjoy these sweet cookies: broken to pieces and sprinkled on top of tart yogurt ice cream!!!! Ahhhh...I want some now! That would be an awesome combo - sweet and tart and melty and crunchy and just pure deliciousness.

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  15. Wow, these look incredible. Intrigued by the addition of yogurt and unusual amount of baking soda. Will definitely give these a go.

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  16. @Susan: I know the yoghurt sounds a little bit strange but I was out of eggs. I think it turned out to be a merry mishap. :)

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  17. No eggs in such a delightful cookie. I love the flavors. I think that Jen's idea of crumbling it on top of frozen yogurt sounds incredible:)

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  18. Don't you love those "last minute" swap outs?
    Good job on these--so obvious I know, but I had to say it.

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  19. you are my cookie queen Valerie! Slurping off the screen, i would love a box of this like, now!

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  20. Hey, nothing wrong with waiting until October for pumpkin! I'm still trying to hold on to summer, although I will be posting a pumpkin recipe soon - I just couldn't resist :) These cookies look amazing! I just love toffee, and I bet the almond extract is delicious in there!

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  21. Love toffee and cookies together and that poem is perfect. Wishing I had these tonight while I'm sitting here blogging, tv watching and dreaming of baking.

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  22. Toffee is one of my favorite cookie ingredients and these look so perfect! The texture looks just the way I like my cookies, crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy inside.

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  23. These cookies are seriously incredible! Gosh I missed your recipes when I was away!

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  24. Will Greek yogurt work for these cookies? They look so lovely.

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Dsayko. Sorry for the delayed reply. Yes, you can definitely use Greek yoghurt, it would probably lend even more depth to the cookies. :-)

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  25. Made these last night, the dough tasted wonderful! When I baked the first batch they burned pretty bad on the bottom so I’ll try the second batch at 350

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Thanks for visiting, and for taking the time to read through my ramblings!
If you have a recipe comment or question, I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Baking!
♥ Valerie

 

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