Peanut Butter Toffee Chocolate Bars

Have you tried eating super gooey messy chocolate bars on a hot afternoon with a glass of ice-cold lemonade whilst watching something stupid like Spongebob Squarepants? That was exactly what i did today. It was 100% sinful because it was laziness and sloppiness carried out to the extreme, and i loved every moment of it! Felt like i deserved it and honestly, i think i did! Even though I've been slacking around for a very long period of time (months i suppose)...one can never have enough rewards or good lazy ol' summer times, i should say.

I had a request from my mom to bake sth nice & English - tea scones, pretty muffins - to match her new silver tea set. It's really lovely I must say, something that blends in very well with our silver, white, brown kitchen. Some relatives were coming over for tea so I was pretty excited to do something nice & pretty too...thus, I was rushing around last evening in town looking for a grocery store to get good butter. But then, I was told last nite that plans had changed & i really wouldn't be needing to trouble myself to make tea cakes and all. Feeling really tired, i thought yeehaa, that ain't so bad. Moreover, it would mean i could sleep late and try to escape the heat in my own bedroom with my fan blasting it's blades off the ceiling wall.
Of course, that didn't happen because my hands were itching to do something pretty exciting today. And gosh, was I glad i woke up early. Besides, these would be good as a gift for dear bertie's bday too. Nice, messy, rich, crazy gooey, and so good. I remember the times when I always craved for chocolate bars, or brownie bars, or anything that came in a good solid rectangle so that my short, chubby fingers could just grab one as I ran for my life away from cavaty-fighting teachers/parents.And that memory really inspired me to try make cookie bars...or GOOEY bars as what mine turned out as. I'm a reaaaally lazy (honest!) worker in the kitchen, and i wasn't fancyin the idea of doing a cheesecake or a pie or some 3-layered slice for tt matter, so this recipe I found in Lisa Yockelson's Chocolatechocolate (pg 146) was perfect for me. For those with this adorably pink chocolate bible, you'll know that the recipe is a Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chunk Bars and I tweaked this recipe in terms of ingredients because I literally had all my Cadbury Chocolate missing AND i'd thrown out my Reese's peanut butter because it'd gone past the safe to eat date with all my lazy procrastination.

Below is my own version..the ultra gooey messy Peanut Butter Sticky Toffee Chocolate Bars, inspired by good ol' Lisa, but if you do want the original recipe, feel free to leave a comment with your email & I'll get it sent over right away. :D

Ingredients
1 cup + 1 tbs all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsk salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 2 tbs creamy peanut butter (the creamier it is, the more moist ur choc bar)
1 tbs vegetable oil
approx 3/4 - 1 cup mix of giant, miniature semisweet & dark choc morsels + more for sprinkling over the top(i did my own mix here of nestle morsels, hershey's miniature choc chips and a german brand of dark choc chunks)
hershey's semisweet choc, chopped into chunks
8-10 chewy toffee candies

Preheat oven to 180dCelsius. Grease a 9x9" pan.
Sift flour, baking soda and salt.

Cream the butter on low speed for 3min till nice and creamy. Add the sugar, and continue beating another 3min.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing for approx 30sec. Beat in the vanilla, peanut butter and oil.
Scrape down to ensure a smooth batter.
On low speed, mix in the sifted mixture.
Fold in the choc morsels and cut up toffee candies.

Scrape batter into pan, and spread it evenly. Do smooth the top with the back of your spoon or a rubber spatula, and proceed to sprinkle the top with more choc morsels, big, small, huge, tiny WHATEVER! :D just have fun doing it and press in the broken choc chunks for added choc power. If you'd like a glossy sticky top, add some more toffee candies to the top, these will melt and add a little gloss to the choc bar, but will make an ultra sticky bar to eat. beware!

Bake for 25-28min. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool completely.
Once cool, cut into bars. Be careful with cutting or removing frm the pan as these are terribly soft and gooey, unlike what Lisa actually meant them to be. Store in airtight container and consume within 2 days.
I recommend eating it with a glass of cold drink in front of the telly, preferably watching some nonsense cartoon.
It really makes you feel like a million bucks! :D