Toffee Butter Tart Squares

I have a great recipe for you today!  I think it’s time to learn how to make the best chocolate chip toffee butter tart squares, ever.  No, really, this is a new favorite of mine and I will be making these butter tart squares for every potluck I get invited to from here on out.

I’m from Canada and so, butter tarts are kind of our thing.  Canadian butter tarts can be found all over the country, and can I be honest? I’ve never met a butter tart I didn’t like.

However, something about making individual tarts feels a little more difficult. I know you can buy prepared tart shells, but I never think of it and I like to make my own baked goods. That’s why I LOVE making bars and squares because you just fill a 9 x 13 casserole dish and pop it in the oven and it’s done in no time.  Very little effort required.

​And so, butter tart bars are a winner for me.

Years ago in a place I used to live in, a local butter tart shop opened up.  They had homemade butter tarts of all different flavors.  My favorite that they carried was a Skor butter tart.  Skor is a chocolate bar here in Canada made out of toffee and chocolate.  In the US the equivalent would be a Heath bar.

I’ve since moved 7 hours away from that amazing little butter tart shop, so I decided it was time to recreate the Skor butter tart (or Heath butter tart) but in square form.  

For this recipe you’ll see that there’s butter in the crust AND the butter tart, which is no surprise seeing as they ARE called butter tart squares.  However, you’ll want cold butter for the crust – straight from the fridge, and you’ll want softened butter for the filling, so you may need to leave it out at room temperature on your counter for a bit before baking these squares.

Toffee Butter Tart Squares

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• 2 cups of All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 cup butter cold from the fridge
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

For the filling:

• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Additionally you’ll need:

• 1/2 cup Heath bits or Skor bits
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 9 x 13 dish with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients for your crust.  So, that’s going to be your 2 cups of flour, 3/4 cup of cold butter, 1/3 cup white sugar, and 1/3 cup brown sugar.  I like to cut my butter up into chunks before I add it.

You are going to mix this.  It’s easier to do with either a pastry blender (which I don’t have) or just using your hands which I find works well.  You want the consistency to be crumbly, similar to a shortbread dough consistency.

Dump the flour mix into your baking dish and press mixture down evenly.  Pop it in the oven for 15 minutes.

Once it’s done set aside to let it cool slightly.

For the filling you want to mix together the 1/2 cup of butter, 4 eggs, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 cups of brown sugar, 2 tbsp of flour, and 1 tbsp of vanilla.

As you can see my butter is still a bit lumpy that’s okay to have some lumps, but you don’t want massive chunks of butter throughout your tart filling.

Spread out evenly over the crust 1/4 cup of the toffee bits and 1/4 cup of chocolate chips.

Add the filling and spread with a spatula.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until set.  It’s set when it’s firm around the edges and slightly jiggly in the middle, but not too much. It should be a nice golden brown as well.

Take it out and let it sit for about 5 minutes.  After the 5 minutes sprinkle the remaining toffee bits and chocolate chips.  Press them down gently into the top of the butter tart squares.  

You want to work fast doing this because the chocolate chips will start to melt.  Once I’ve done this I just leave it alone to allow the chocolate chips to maintain their shape as the squares cool.  If I’m a little eager I’ll pop the squares in the freezer to speed up the process.

You can store these in an airtight container for 5 days.  If you want them to last longer than that, store them in the freezer.  

And that’s all there is to making these Heath butter tarts. Now the biggest problem you will have is trying to not eat them all at once.  Seriously, I had a super hard time stopping myself from overeating these and in full disclosure I probably had one too many.  My family kept asking me for seconds and thirds as well.

Skor bars or Heath bars that you can buy in the store are pretty good, but I’d take one of these butter tarts over the store bought Heath or Skor bar any day!  To me these bars are an iconic dessert that everyone will love.

More recipes you might like:

• Homemade Pizza Dough 
• Cheesy Pizza Casserole
• Homemade Fluffy Pancakes