Cookies are simple to make with few ingredients and can be modified to include fruit, nuts, seeds, and spices, and rolled, cut and decorated for any occasion.

Whether making and sharing easily transportable energy bars or delicate treats served on fine china, cookies are a sweet way to say, “I love you.”

Since my early attempts at cookie baking, I have been fascinated by the endless variety of both names and flavors of cookies. There are snaps, sandies, hermits, dainties, thumbprints, gems, biscotti, pizzelle, crisos, mondel brot, tray bakes, gems, moon cakes, whoopee pies and snicker doodles. I enjoy saying Karlsbader Oblaten as much as I enjoy eating the delicious butter wafer made crunchy with coarse sugar and groundnuts. Learning names of exotic cookies and tasting them is a hobby similar to stamp collecting but one I find more rewarding.

When my younger son, Matthew,  was eight he had a cookie stand during an annual two day garden tour in our neighborhood. We baked trays of cookies and after two very successful days, he was able to made a hefty deposit to his drum kit fund. Toffee cookie bars, called toffee tray bakes in the UK, topped with nuts and chocolate were the most popular. Here’s how we made them a few days before the garden tour:

Toffee Cookies

We used a stand mixer on medium speed to beat one cup softened, unsalted butter and one cup of sugar until the mixture was fluffy and then beat in one egg yolk, turned the mixer to low and added two cups of all-purpose flour.   When the flour was blended in, we spread the dough evenly over the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 inch rimmed baking pan.

I used a fork to lightly beat the egg white, spread it evenly over the dough, sprinkled one cup of chopped walnuts over the top and lightly pressed them into the dough. We baked the dough in a 275 F oven until it was firm and lightly brown, about an hour, and then sprinkled one cup of mini semi sweet chocolate chips on top and put it back in the oven to melt the chocolate, about five minutes.

While the cookies were still hot, Matthew used a small spatula to smear the chocolate a bit and then used a serrated knife to cut large  cookie squares. After the cookies had cooled in the pan, we stacked them in an airtight container with waxed paper between each layer.

The cookies are wonderful whether they are one inch squares or oversized  three inch squares. Recently I served 3 inch square toffee cookies topped with a scoop of coffee ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce as the finale for an elegant dinner party.

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