Moviehole-katietreasures: Prize Winning Chocolate Chip Toffee Grahams

I want to share with you the most awesome, wonderful, crowd pleasing treat ever. I have shared this recipe before but only 38 people ever saw the post. That should not be... Every time I take these cookies to a party, people rave about them. I almost never bring any home and they really are prize winning.
I'll tell you the story at the end of this post.
28 years ago I received this cookbook from my darling, Aunt Susan.

The outfits and crafts in this book are hysterical.

When I perused the book, I found the recipe. I must have had the Lord shining on me the day I made them, because they came out perfectly. I don't mind sharing recipes and I've given this one out many times. My friends have told me that theirs didn't turn out the same as mine.

I will walk you through the recipe step by step to help guarantee success.

11 whole graham crackers broken into rectangles
1 cup butter (do not use margarine)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans
6 oz chocolate chips (the recipe calls for mini chips but I never use those)

Have everything arranged and ready to go.
Arrange graham crackers onto a lightly greased jelly roll pan. 15 x 10. I arrange them all onto one side because 1 package won't really fill up the pan. You can use a cookie sheet, but the sides have to go up about an inch.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Put butter and sugar in a sauce pan. Turn on burner to medium heat. Do not turn on the burner until both the butter and sugar are in the pan. Melt butter and sugar, stirring constantly. Keep stirring only to stop every once in a while to check to see if the mixture is boiling. You have to stop stirring because the thick mixture bubbles when you are stirring it. When you stop stirring you can see if it is really boiling or just glopping when you stir. (I think this might be where the recipients of this recipe are making their mistake.) Once the toffee boils turn on the timer for 2 minutes and keep stirring. Remove from heat after two minutes and add the cinnamon and pecans. Pour mixture over the graham crackers. Here is what they look like before they go in the oven.

Bake the crackers for 10 minutes, no more. I never ever, vary the baking time.

Here is what they look like after they have baked.

Pull the pan out of the oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Some of the chips will fall in between crackers. If you want to have perfect looking bars with no dripping, oozing chocolate, you can put the chips on after you remove them from the pan. Make sure the cookies are still hot when you put the chips on. Work quickly to remove the toffee from the pan. If you wait too long the bars will stick and break.

Place on cookie sheets lined with wax paper. You can cool in the freezer or the fridge.

Here are a couple of tricks.

You can increase the recipe by adding more graham crackers. Just increase the butter and sugar by equal amounts. I have done 1 1/2 cups of both before but I've never doubled it.

These freeze really well. In fact I made some two weeks ago and put them in the freezer.

I pull them out as needed. ;) I love them crunched up over ice cream. I also like them without the chocolate chips.

I don't thing you will be able to eat just one.

I promised that these were prize winning.

My daughter's Junior High 4H club went to the Junior Live Stock Show in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition to animals the students could bring baked goods. She brought these cookies and won. She was allowed to get in the center of the arena and auction off her cookies. She was Reserve Grand Champion and received a gigantic belt buckle. It was too much fun.