Yesterday was a bad day. It started out good as I was anticipating the delivery of my new dishwasher.
Two weeks ago my dishwasher decided to stop draining water and it was not worth replacing the pump. Hand washing dishes for the past two weeks didn’t make my list of “Top 10 Ways I Love To Spend My Time”.
But to get the dishwasher I wanted, I waited the two weeks.
It came. It was installed. The delivery guys started a 97-minute long cycle and said to let it run before I washed any dishes. Perfect.
It had been running for thirty minutes when I left for the post office, the pharmacy and the grocery store. I was also going to head to Costco. Glad I decided against the last part.
When I opened the back door to my kitchen I stepped into two-inches of water with more water spraying out of the dishwasher like a fire hose.
It took about twenty very large towels and five rolls of Bounty to sop up the water. My afternoon was so, so fun.
The verdict, another week without a dishwasher until a new one is delivered. Poop. Hand washing is for the birds. On the bright side… the gallons and gallons of hot water poured onto the kitchen floor left it absolutely sparkling!
So what do I do in times of crisis? I bake. I don’t necessarily want to eat, (okay maybe just a little).
These Chocolate Chip-Toffee Cookies were exactly what my disaster ordered. Crispy and full of candy bits, these will knock your socks off.
Let’s hurry and make these…I have lots of dishes to do.
Here’s what you will need: All-purpose flour, baking soda, unsalted butter, golden-brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, vanilla extract, semisweet chocolate chips and milk chocolate toffee pieces. Ingredients not shown: Table salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together 10.5 ounces (2-1/3 cups) all-purpose flour, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon table salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 cup light-brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in 1 egg and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
On low speed, gradually add in flour mixture. Beat for 2 minutes or until blended.
Stir in 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips and 1 bag (8 ounces) chopped milk chocolate toffee pieces.
Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets covered with a nonstick baking mat, parchment or cooking spray. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool baking sheets on wire racks for 5 minutes (cookies will be very soft). Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.
Fill a cup and enjoy.
These would be great for Valentine’s Day as well. Very yummy.
Chocolate Chip-Toffee Cookies
10.5-ounces (2-1/3 cups) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 bag (8 ounces) chopped milk chocolate toffee pieces
In a medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking soda and table salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together butter, granulated sugar and light-brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.
On low speed, gradually add in flour mixture. Beat for 2 minutes or until blended.
Stir in chocolate chips and chopped milk chocolate toffee pieces.
Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets covered with a nonstick baking mat, parchment or cooking spray. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool baking sheets on wire racks for 5 minutes (cookies will be very soft). Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.
O.K. now, how can anyone keep to their New year’s resolution to lose weight if you’re posting these kind of recipes WITH pictures!
Dishwashers, love em and hate ’em. We have gone through 4 dishwashers in 17 years and 2 of them were spendy dishwashers. One of them quit on me the Thanksgiving morning we had 28 people coming for Thanksgiving meal!You can bond over sinks and sinks full of dishes you know…..but I still want a working dishwasher.Now that your floor is squeaky clean, is your dishwasher working?
YUM!!!! I am so making these ans they will be known as dishwasher cookies. 🙂
And, that totally sucks— how shitty.
The cookies look divine. I hope they made you feel better about your bad day. You might need something every day until you get that dishwasher installed again! I bet you have a huge amount of cabinets with all your beautiful dishes in them. When you build your new home, I recommend building kitchen cabinets all the way up to the ceiling. I did that this time, and I have 10 ft. ceilings. I just love those cabinets. Will I ever use all those cabinets? I doubt it, but I am never at a loss for storage in my kitchen, and the good thing is that I do not have to dust above the cabinets! A lot people wondered what a short person like me wanted cabinets all the way to the ceiling, and I explain that all I need is a small step ladder in the kitchen and it works for me.
Those look like they might cure just about any ill!
Sorry to hear of your dishwasher woes. I don’t think I’d handle it as gracefully…
My man and kiddos will love you for this…me…not.going.to.touch.them!!!!
Not. (I am willing myself here)
They look amazing and I am so sorry to hear about your fiasco!! That is awful.
Marlene
Nothing wrong with needing them…I find myself needing sweets over most any stressful situation! ;o)
I think these cookie would be the perfect “bandaid” to a bad afternoon! Love the toffee addition! Hope the dishwasher problems gets solved ASAP!
Nothing like a good cookie to make you forget about your woes. If it’s any consolation, my dishwasher is so bad that I have to practically wash all my dishes first anyway, and my kitchen floor is not nearly as clean as yours!
This past Thanksgiving I lost the dishwasher 10 days before Thanksgiving and the 20 cubic foot deep freeze the Saturday before. We only had 11 people besides us for the holiday, but they were house guests for 5 days.
Last May my wife and I went on a food trip to Cleveland, meeting a bunch of other food people we had never met. This included renting a demo kitchen and preping lunch, Michael Ruhlman was our guest.
The night we got there, dinner at the B&B were contributions from all the participants. I did a charcuterie platter and pickles and my wife a side of cured salmon.
A woman of the name of Marylin brought the most amazing toffee, I will try and get you her recipe.
That totally sucks about your dishwasher…hope it’s not another 2 weeks! I’m so not into delayed gratification. But the cookies look great!
Ha ha ha (evil snickering) guess what I put in my cart at 4:35 this morning? I bag of Heath toffee bits. Fate? I think so…….
Oh yes, bet you needed the cookie! I would have needed some extra towels to mop up my tears too aCathy. Love them cookies & love the mugs…how sweet!
Toffee is pretty close to chocolate in my comfort food arena- and the two together? Like a 1,000/hr therapist.
those look so nummy. And welcome to the ranks of regular hand washers, lol. My kitchen is so freakin tiny I don’t think I have room for a dishwasher. I also don’t have the counter space I like to bake…
Ohhhhh nooooo that sucks! And now think about all of those 24 towels you have to wash!!! Grrrrrrr
Those looks sooo yummy! We’ve been a week without a clothes washer so I totally now what your going through…minus all the water on the floor.
Appliances gone wild … never fun. I bake or clean when I am stressed; obviously, I prefer the first. This recipe (when converted to gluten free) is almost identical to my brown sugar chocolate chip cookies. The main difference is the one cup of chocolate chips and one cup of toffee chips vs the two cups of chocolate chips I normally use. Can’t wait to try these–I know they made you feel better! BTW, hand washing can be therapeutic … oh, yeah, guess that goes back to my latter alternative … cleaning. LOL
Shirley
First of all, that really bites about the dishwasher. Second, Hmmm maybe that IS a good way to mop the floor–a little soaking in tons of water. Ok, no.
Third, Me want a cookie! Those look great! Way to take care of needs!
Sorry to hear about your dishwasher – your cookies sure look delicious! I love adding toffee to chocolate chip cookies, it gives them such a nice texture.
We live in fear that our ancient portable dishwasher will one day do something like that. We do not leave the house when it is running. My floors are old pine, I don’t think we’d have sparkling, we’d have splintering.
But boy those cookies look good. Will have to add the ingredients to my shopping list!
I completely sympathize with your situation! Five years ago I put the dishwasher on in the morning, left to take the kids to school and do errands, came back that afternoon to hear the dishwasher still running. Water everywhere. I learned to never leave the house while the dishwasher is running.
Then this summer our dishwasher went out, but we didn’t get a new one until Thanksgiving. Four months without a dishwasher for a family of nine is not a picnic!
Any way, the cookies look fab. I made some toffee cookies and now toffee is my new love. I never thought of a marriage between toffee and chocolate though. That’s brilliant!
So sorry about your dishwasher!
I LOVE toffee, and I use these chips all the time. I’m going to have to try this one.
Wow -I hear you on the dishwasher woes….but yes, at least your floor is sparkling clean – just in time for the Chinese New Year! (Where it is normal to completely clean house before the New Year to help bring in good luck all year (Jan. 26th for those counting down)
I love these cookies, made them plenty of times myself. You did the right thing, bake in times of crisis – totally helps one’s mind go to a better place, and in this case the smell of these wonderful cookies baking and cooling. Good job –
I need these right now too. I wish I could find the milk chocolate toffee bits in my area. They only sell the plain toffee. I do so love the toffee bits in baking. These would so be a winner in my home!
Oh Cathy. This happened to us with our washing machine in the middle of the night. Most of our entire downstairs was flooded with two inches of water when we woke up. It was HORRIBLE – our carpet didn’t dry for days.
On the bright side, your floors are clean and you have delicious cookies to nibble on. They look excellent.
Oh no–I’m sorry about your dishwasher nightmare!! I HATE handwashing dishes.
Those cookies look amazing–I must make them–probably today. I’ll have to run out and get the Heath pieces…
They look amazing! I want a few now with milk pls!
Auggggggh – you poor thing !!! Dishwasher h*** !!!!
I CANNOT IMAGINE THAT CLEAN-UP. SHUDDER.
Do you have wood or tile floors in your kitchen ?
The cookies look and sound great, btw 🙂
Now those DO look wonderful. But I don’t know how you do it! I would have been so mad about the floor that I would have been steamin’ all day!
My heart just sunk when I read the dishwasher dilema. You bake – I’m calling the insurance company and the manufacturer. I really hope the dishwasher is worth the wait and if it’s a Maielle I know it is.
There’s something for you on our blog
First of all – the cookies look yummy. Second – I hope that installation dude is coming back and fixing the dishwasher!
Every time I turn on my dishwasher and leave the house I have a twinge of “should I be leaving” anxiety. Our dishwasher leaked when we first moved in, thankfully it was just the rubber sealer thing that had come loose.
Those cookies look amazing.
In times of crisis I either bake or open a bottle of wine and start preparing a dinner that involves lots of chopping. But baking is my favorite!
These cookies look perfect! Yum!
Awww Cathy, so when is the guy coming back? Hope it will be fix soon. Do you have hardwood floor in the kitchen? Because that will a disaster to fix the floor too.
You absolutely need this delicious cookies, how about coming over to my place, I still have a slice of peach tart that you wanted. I save it specially for you.
Xoxo,
Elra
Dangit – sorry about your washer!
And I am pretty sure cookies solve most problems! You had me at toffee! 😀
sorry about your dishwasher – i would be beyond mad… but those cookies look and sound heavenly. i’m sure that they are a cure-all 🙂
They will return next week with a new dishwasher, another one had to be ordered.
Marilyn’s English Toffee
1 lb unsalted butter
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 cup slivered almonds
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
2 cups lightly toasted pecans
1 Melt ¾ of chocolate over hot water or in a microwave oven at half power for 2-3 minutes. When melted, stir in remaining chocolate and set aside. Line a large jelly roll or half-sheet pan with heavy-duty foil and butter the foil.
2 Melt the butter with the salt in a heavy 3 quart saucepan over medium heat. Slowly add the sugar, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Add the water about halfway through this process.
3 After all the sugar is added, begin testing the mixture to see if the sugar is dissolved. Place a drop of mixture on wax paper; allow it to cool and rub it between your fingers to make sure it doesn’t feel grainy. If it does, continue to cook and test again. The mixture will probably be boiling at this point.
4 When sugar is dissolved, add the almonds, and increase the heat to medium high. Cook to the hard-crack stage, or about 310-320 degrees on a candy thermometer, stirring often to keep the candy from burning on the bottom. When it’s done, it should be a medium-dark amber color and have a caramel aroma. The almonds should have a toasted color but they should not burn. This is the tricky part, as there’s a thin line between perfect and overdone, and to some extent it’s a matter of taste.
5 Remove from heat and pour into the prepared pan, spreading as evenly as possible with an offset spatula. Be careful, this stuff is hot! Set the pan on a cooling rack. After 2-3 minutes, when toffee is just set, pour reserved chocolate on top and spread evenly. Sprinkle with chopped nuts, and press them in gently with a spatula or bottom of a glass to anchor them in the chocolate.
6 Allow the toffee to harden at least 6-8 hours—overnight is better. Break into pieces using a sharp pointed knife with a rigid blade, or you can use your hands. Store in an airtight container in a cool place. Makes about 3 pounds.
this can be found, posted at: http://bb.fuzzychef.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=118
I”m glad you decided to make these cookies. If my dishwasher was broken, there’s no way I’d cook….unless I needed a cookie! 🙂
rain outside and rain inside… are you dreaming about the this old house guys too?
Don’t you hate appliance issues? Especially in the kitchen!
On a brighter note; thanks for the cookie recipe. I have a bag of toffee bits in my pantry left over from Christmas that I didn’t know what to do with…now I do. 😉
Looks like you found the perfect antidote to the dishwasher woes. What I need is to move next door to you, so I could help you with the leftovers!
Oh, no! How terrible. There was a lot of bad mojo going on last week.
Cookies always make things better.
Oh, Cathy – I wish I could say I can’t relate. But, our luck with dishwashers (and lately washing machines) is getting to be legendary!
Glad you found a way to ease a bit of the pain. I’ve got a good dishwasher over here if you need to borrow him 🙂
What a nightmare! I am so sorry. I would be so disappointed. I love new appliances but I get really crazy when one breaks.
Toffee anything is my biggest weakness. As good as these look, I won’t be making them until I’m off the New Year Diet.
Sorry to hear about the dishwasher. They truly don’t make things like they used to. We’ve had the same one now for 20 years… and I’m dreading the day it bites the dust.
What a pain! But, like you said, at least your kitchen floor is clean…
Those cookies look so good. I’m never going to lose weight at this rate. 😛
I.WANT.THESE.! So what if I have to spend an extra hour on the treadmill this weekend. I had the same water disaster in my house, except it was the new clothes washer. The installer forgot to hook hose to the drain. He was coaching a kids soccer game when I finally reached him so I got to mop it all up by myself. Now I double check before the installer leave the premises! Gotta go to the store now and get toffee bits….
I’m so sorry the whole dishwasher fiasco happened. What a bummer! Hand washing dishes is for Amish people! It’s hilarious that you used the expression “poop” to express your disgust. I always holler “POOP” when things go awry =)
Those cookies look so good!
I feel for ya. I had to replace my dishwasher not long ago.
I hope they put a rush on the new order!!!
Cookies are a good tonic. I won’t wait for any dishwasher; I want it replaced NOW if I need it, because the handwashing is SOOOO sucky! And I won’t let the installer leave until it has drained twice, so if there’s a problem, he can fix it. And yes, that has included the times my home staff (translation: hubby and sons) has not done the job. After all, feed them cookies, they’ll sit down and wait! Especially these cookies!
I needed these too Cathy, so I made them yesterday evening..and ate way too many self.. Sorry I have been such a bad blogging Buddy.. I have issues but you know that lol I promise to do better 🙂
That is awful. Did the service guys not hook up the new correctly? If it’s the same guys coming back with a new one I’d watch them. Not fun. But the cookies are fun.
Sorry about the flood-but the cookies sound YUM!
oh dear. even though these cookies are heavenly, it’d take a bit more than that to help me cope with such a fiasco. it’d take ice cream, too. 🙂
i need them now. but i can’t cook them b/c then i’d eat them all. can i make just one? when i’m pissed off i usually turn to liquor. maybe cookies would be a better way to cope.
Love these. I’ve been craving ANYTHING with toffee in it as of late, and this recipe would fill the bill nicely. Hope you have better luck with the next dishwasher. What a pain.
no no no, I don’t do 6 miles every day very fast, and my butt can’t tkae any more sweets, but they look absolutely perfect. sorry about the home flood! Is your plumbing alright?
Knowing how to take care of yourself in crisis is essential! And chocolate chip cookies are a perfect solution in this situation. Hang in there.
I need them too! I… well, I didn’t do anything today. Doesn’t that mean it’s time for cookies? 🙂
I can’t believe you baked when you knew you had to wash the dishes by hand!! You are a much better woman than me.
I’m coming out of hiding to say that I love the fact that your dishwasher has made your kitchen floor so clean. I almost kind of wish that happened to my kitchen floor. Love the cookies, love the site, love your ideas. Keep rockin’ the house Cathy!
All these beautiful dishes you’ve made and had to wash dishes as well? There’s just something WRONG with that!Dang!
YUMMMMMM! These cookies sound de-lish! Toffee and chocolate…holy schmoly! Some of my favorite foods….
Uhhh .. two things. First, my new dishwasher that I’ve been waiting on for 2 weeks is due to be delivered on Monday. Thanks for the heads up about the new alternative way to clean the floor. I don’t think I’ll leave the kitchen, and will stand ready with towels the first time it runs.
Next, you baked cookies knowing you’d have to wash all the bowls and stuff by hand? You are a cookie makin’ saint!
I am so sorry about your dishwasher but glad that you consoled yourself with these dainty delectibles. Also glad that your floor is sparkling clean.
These cookies must be VERY good if you’re willing to messy up a bunch of bowls and tools while not having a dishwasher!
Dishwashers are a luxury and never something I take for granted. I didn’t have a dishwasher for about 6 years and handwashed everything in a tiny two-compartment sink, with one compartment reserved for the drain rack. I LOVE my dishwasher now!
Oh Cathy, I’m so sorry about your dishwasher woes! A clean floor is only a tiny consolation.
I actually don’t mind washing dishes from a Zen point of view, but the last time I was actually living without a dishwasher was two kids ago when I didn’t cook very elaborate meals. Now that would be pure torture.
Your cookies look so good. I hope you had at least three of them. You should have two more tomorrow morning for breakfast. Heck, give your kids cookies for breakfast. It won’t make any dishes, and I promise you, they will remember it forever – in a really nice way.
I am drooling and wishing I had one of these right now to eat with my morning coffee!!
Ya know, it’s a darned good thing I didn’t make any resolutions about my weight (Hello, obvious much?), because I’ve made several of the recipes you’ve posted in the last few weeks and that imaginary resolution would have been dust! *lol*
These look AMAZING! When my doc asks me why I haven’t lost more weight, I’m going to hand her a slip of paper with your blog addy on it. *lol*
These are great! Made them right away today. Thanks for the recipe.
I tend to bake when I am stressed too.
But that is terrible about your dishwasher! I hate water issues–although at least it was clean water. I hope the new one arrives soon!
Yes, I have all the ingredients for these cookies!! Even though I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies yesterday, they are already gone. Time to fill the cookie jar again.
How does one write crying? hoohoohoo. I sould like a drunk ghost. Those look terribly good.
These cookies are KILLING me! I want them now! Bummer I don’t have heath bar here. Or maybe it’s a good thing….
I have a bag of toffee pieces that has just been waiting for this recipe! YUM!
Brilliant post mate, keep up the good work