When I first got in (I could go on and on about how silly it is that they try to make it such an exclusive thing, but I'll save that rant for another day) I spent hours upon hours looking through pins. I loved it.
Then I discovered Stumble Upon, and now I spend at least an hour a day stumbling around the world wide webs, letting this random web-page generator find new crafts and inspirations for me.
I still use Pinterest . . .
when I remember that it exists . . .
maybe once a week.
But, today's crafty moment was "Pinspired" by Pinterest (and you can imagine how proud I was to come up with that fun little mash-up . . . I'll probably use it a lot now :) )
For my Framily New Year's Eve party, I decided to throw together a dessert that I'd pinned months ago and forgotten about. I wanted something quick, easy, cheap, and delicious . . . and Chocolate Toffee Peanut Butter Bark is all of that (and MORE!)
The original instructions from the original pin can be found here. I fully believe in giving credit where credit is due, so I won't be mad if you read that blog instead.
But I'd rather you just finish reading mine :)
To make Chocolate Toffee Peanut Butter Bark you'll need the following:
*An oven pre-heated to 400 degrees
*Jelly roll pan (the kind with a lip on it . . . a brownie pan works as well)
*Wax paper or parchment paper (to line the pan with)
*Saltines, about 1 sleeve (depends on how big your pan is)
*Brown sugar, 1 cup
*Butter, 1 cup (2 sticks)
*Milk chocolate chips (I used a whole bag)
*Peanut butter chips or other topping item(as much as you care to use)
First step: Line your pan with paper and lay out your saltines. I thought "Hey, I don't actually have wax paper, but aluminum foil should be fine. I always use foil to line pans and I've never regretted that decision, so I'm sure it's going to be just fine and nothing bad will happen!"
Do NOT make that mistake. Aluminum foil and toffee are worst enemies. You have no idea. You'll see why later in this post.
Make sure you leave spaces between the crackers so the toffee can settle to the bottom and into the cracks. It should look something like this when you're done:
Next, melt the butter over the stove, add the brown sugar, and wait for them to boil completely. Once the WHOLE pot is boiling (not just the edges), set a timer for 3 minutes and don't touch the pot. No stirring needed here.
Once your timer goes off, pour the toffee mixture evenly over the saltines. I had a smaller pan than the original recipe called for, so there was way more toffee than was needed for the crackers, and it pooled a lot in the corners. You shouldn't be surprised that those pieces ended up being tastiest :)
Place the pan in the oven (set at 400 degrees) for 5 minutes. I actually put mine in for 10 minutes because of the toffee to cracker ratio. You just want to see the toffee bubbling up--less liquidy and more toffee-y.
Then, put globs of peanut butter over the crackers. I used chunky peanut butter and figured it'd be tougher to spread than creamy, so I put a small glob on each cracker. Put it back in the oven for 2 or 3 minutes.
Then, spread the peanut butter as well as you can to cover all of the crackers and allow it to seep into the cracks.
Next, cover the entire beautiful mess with the bag of chocolate chips and put back in the oven for another 1-3 minutes (till the chips get gooey enough to spread easily). Pull it out, spread the chocolate over the top, and you'll have something that looks like this:
By the time you've reached this step, you're thinking "Oh my goodness gracious, that smells amazing. And it looks amazing. There's NO WAY this could get any better."
You're wrong, though. Now it's time to add your topping of choice. You could add chopped M&M's, chopped nuts, or whatever you desire. I went with Reese's peanut butter chips. I threw them on all nimbly-pimbly, pressed them a little into the chocolate so they'd stay, and this was the final product:
Pop the pan into the freezer for at least an hour. Then remove the paper from the sheet of bark, crack it into pieces, and ta-da! You're done!!
Here is where it would have been helpful to not have tin foil glued to the bottom of this giant chunk of goodness. It took a solid 10 minutes to separate the foil from the toffee. It was a nightmare. A NIGHTMARE.
BUT . . . How amazing does this look?
You're welcome :)
~~Jaynie~~
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