Toffee Square Cookies with Sucanat
This year I’m planning to update several of my family’s traditional Christmas cookie recipes to make them the Naturally Sweet & Sourdough way. So first off are these toffee square cookies, which are basically just a brown sugar cookie base topped with melted chocolate and nuts. The traditional recipe used brown sugar and I substituted that out for Sucanat.
As a reminder, Sucanat is an abbreviation for “sucre de canne naturel” or natural cane sugar and is a less processed, more natural sugar in comparison to granulated white sugar/brown sugar. Due to the minimal processing involved in producing Sucanat, it retains more of its nutritional properties as well. The minimal processing does mean that the granules of Sucanat are larger and not uniform though so when adding it to recipes, including this one, you will need to grind it in a coffee or spice grinder first so that it can better incorporate in with the the rest of the ingredients.
These cookies are absolutely addictive - the nutty, toffy flavor from the Sucanat combined with the rich chocolate and the crunch of the nuts is just the perfect combination. I hope you give it a try!
Makes one 13x9 inch sheet pan (about 15 cookies or more depending on how you cut it)
Ingredients
220 g all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
130 g Sucanat, grind in coffee/spice grinder
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6-7 ounces chocolate chips
1/3 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease a 13x9 sheet pan (if you don’t have this exact size sheet pan, you can use whatever you have - just keep an eye on the baking time if so as it might be longer or shorter depending on how thin the dough is spread).
In a small bowl, sift together the flour and salt.
In a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer (or you can do this by hand if you’re feeling strong), cream the butter. Add the Sucanat and beat for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. With the mixer on low, add the flour and stir until fully combined.
Spread evenly into the pan. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. Right when you take the cookies out of the oven, distribute the chocolate chips evenly over the top. Let them sit for 15-30 seconds - until you notice the chips starting to melt - and then spread them evenly over the top of the cookies (you could also pre-melt the chocolate in a double boiler but I like to avoid taking out extra bowls if I can avoid it). Sprinkle with the nuts.
