Chocolate Toffee Cookies

We have 5 dogs.  I want to be perfectly clear that I did not bring any of these dogs home, but somehow I am the one who feeds them every morning, brushes them, brushes their teeth and lets them out first thing in the morning.  Four of the five are rescue dogs of one type or another.  One was a gift to me from my husband after we lost two of our dogs when our house burned 11 years ago.
Tucker, a golden retriever rescue dog, has developed an anxiety disorder.
All our dogs go into a built in kennel in the garage while we are gone.  They have room to move around, blankets to sleep in and they stay safe and out of stuff while we are at work.  Tucker will have none of it.  After years of happily going into the kennel when we leave, he decided he wasn't going to do that anymore and began to chew everything...the door of the kennel, the wall, the beams that held the kennel together...everything.  We tried several things, giving him more attention, scolding him, chew toys with peanut butter, nothing worked.  One day, we left him in the house alone.  He loves is.  And other than sitting on the couch while we are gone (as if we couldn't tell) he is a very good boy and doesn't get into anything.  That is, until I left cookies to cool on the table one day.
I needed to run to the store a couple of blocks away to pick something up for dinner - really quick.  I took cookies out of the oven, kenneled four of the dogs, and ran to the store.  When I came home, Tucker had pulled the table cloth until the cookies on the cooling rack were right at the edge of the table where he happily ate the dozen cookies.  Really?  I had the cooling rack in the middle of the table and all the chairs pushed in so he couldn't get them, and he pulls the table cloth?  At least I had more dough in the fridge and could bake another couple of dozen.  These are the cookies, notice no table cloth on the table.  I think I learned my lesson.


Chocolate and Toffee Cookies
 from Perfect Cookies, Fog City Press

3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
6 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chocolate-covered toffee candy bars, chopped (I used Heath Bars)

Preheat oven to 375º F.  Un a large bowl, combine brown sugar, butter and vanilla.  Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the mixtrue until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg.
In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and slat.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed just until blended.  Add the chocolate chips and chopped toffee and mix with a spoon until incorporated.  Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonful onto cookie sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.  Transfer to wire racks to cool.
Makes about 42 cookies.

Tucker, the cookie eater, with his tire, LoBo and Lilly in the back, Hershey next to Tucker.

December 30,  2011     Daylight 3 hours, 52 minutes, 48 seconds    Current Temp. -26 ºF