Everything is Bettah with Buttah
Didn’t get enough baking during the holidays? Get your fill with the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board’s Sea Salted Coffee Toffee Bars. And before baking, consider?their tips for baking and cooking with butter:
+Keep it Fresh. Store butter in its original packaging or in a sealed container in the coldest part of the refrigerator, not in the refrigerator door. Keep butter away from foods with strong odors or distinct flavors.
+For melt-in-your-mouth cookies, use slightly softened, unsalted butter. With its low melting point, butter helps make cookies soft and chewy on the inside, but crisp and golden on the outside.
+For flakier pie crusts and puff pastries, keep butter as hard and cold as possible prior to use. The flaky texture is produced when cold pieces of butter, trapped between thin layers of dough, melt during baking, creating small air pockets.
+Butter makes sauces smooth and creamy, and creates a cohesive consistency by helping mix both fat- and water-based ingredients. For the best consistency and flavor, use cold, hard butter.
+Butter is a key contributor to the rich flavor that makes caramels, pralines and toffee richly delicious, and it prevents excessive stickiness. Unsalted butter is best for candy-making.
For more tips and information, visit www.butterisbest.com
- First layer:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ tablespoons instant coffee crystals
- Second layer:
- 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or dark rum
- 1½ cups whole pecans*
- ½ to 1 tablespoon large crystal sea salt
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, stirring between additions.
- Add instant coffee crystals and blend until well incorporated.
- Pat batter into ungreased 9x13x2-inch baking pan in an even layer.
- Bake until edges are lightly browned and center is puffy, 12 to 15 min.
- Meanwhile, in heavy saucepan, stir condensed milk and 2 tablespoons butter over low heat until butter melts. The mixture will thicken and become smooth.
- Stir in vanilla or rum, remove from heat and let sit until bottom layer is done baking. Sprinkle nuts over baked bottom layer and pour hot condensed milk mixture evenly over nuts using a spatula to spread.
- Return to the oven and bake until top is golden and bubbling, 10 to 12 minutes.
- Immediately sprinkle desired amount of sea salt over bubbling toffee top.
- Cool slightly in pan and cut into bars. Bars can be kept up to one week in an airtight container.
Thanks for stopping by. Here's to great food and good thymes! -