Almond Toffee Bars

Course #4 - Dessert: Part One.

Now, it's time for the after-party. Woo...

I remember tasting something similar to this at Cakery Bakery in La Canada, CA. Though it didn't have any toffee. I fell in love with it from the moment I laid eyes on them. Yes, love at first sight can happen with food.

Rather than driving there and paying $.85 for a small piece, I tried my hand on making my own batch. I totally took a wild guess as to what the ingredients might be. Dissecting it as I took a bite. I had a good feeling as to what they may be. Bakeries don't usually divulge their secrets unless you're really super-duper nice and do favors for them or you work there.

I made this with a graham cracker base similar to making a pie crust and added the toffee bits.





Almond Toffee Bars


Graham Cracker Base:

22 Whole Honey Graham Crackers (crushed)
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c unsalted butter or margarine (1 stick - softened)
1 1/2 Tbsp Cinnamon

Preheat oven 350˚F

Combine ingredients thoroughly together in a bowl and mix until it can easily be molded in your hand. Place the mixture into a lightly greased 13x9 baking pan. Press firmly into a leveled layer.

Bake for 8-10min and let cool. The crust will harden after cooling.


Almond Toffee Filling:

7 oz Almond paste (mashed into bits for easier mixing)
3/4 c unsalted butter or margarine
1 1/2 Tbsp Vanilla
2 Eggs
4 Tbsp Sugar

1 c sliced almonds
1/2 c toffee bits

Combine the ingredients together in a bowl until the mixture is of a creamy consistency.


Pour the mixture over the graham cracker base. Spread into an even layer then sprinkle the sliced almonds and toffee bits on top.

Bake for 30 min. The top should have a caramel color to it. Let it cool completely before cutting or else graham cracker will slightly crumble.

Cut into desired sizes and enjoy.

Cini Mini Bites with Cream Cheese Frosting

Now for the 4th and final recipe of the 4-part meal. I remember watching Barefoot Contessa on day and on the episode, Ina Garten had made some easy sticky buns.(Click here to view her recipe) It got me thinking on making some, but bite-sized. Here's my adaptation.

As I mentioned in the first of this 4-part post. Puff pastry usually comes in tri-folded sheet. The recipe below will use 1/3 of that pastry puff.

Serving size: 1/3 will generally make around 11 to 12 bites. One whole puff pastry will make 33 to 36 including edges.

The cream cheese frosting is similar to the cream cheese filling minus the strawberries.



Cini Mini Bites

1/3 Puff Pastry Sheet (cut at crease)
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar (plus 4 Tbsp extra)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp Toffee Bits
1 Tbsp chopped Pecan chips (plus extra)
1/4 tsp melted butter
4 Tbsp butter (softened)
all purpose flour

Preheat oven 400˚F

Place pastry puff on a well-floured flat surface. Longest side towards you. Sprinkle brown sugar over dough, leaving a little over 1/2" at the top for the edge crust. Then sprinkle ground cinnamon, toffee bits and pecan chips. Make sure to get all the other sides but that open 1/2"

Brush the melted butter on that open 1/2", then roll the the dough nice and snug from the bottom up. Cut into 3/4" pieces.

Cream together the extra 4 Tbsp butter and 4 Tbsp brown sugar on a small bowl.

For baking sheets: Place mini muffins on greased sheet and place a tiny dollop of the butter and brown sugar mix and sprinkle some extra pecan ships.

For mini-muffin pans: place a tiny dollup of the butter mix at the bottom of each cup. Then place one piece of the cinnamon bites on top.

Bake for 10min.

For mini-muffin pans: to remove mini-bites, flip the pan onto a flat surface.
For sheet pans: remove with spatula.


Cream Cheese Frosting
2 oz. Cream Cheese (roughly 4 Tbsp)
4 Tbsp Confectioner Sugar (powdered sugar)
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

Mix all three ingredients together in a small bowl


Putting it together: Place a nice dollop of frosting on each cini mini bite and enjoy!