Chocolate Toffee Crackers

In the last couple of weeks, I have made several recipes from the Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke.  Thank goodness I can bring all my baking to work to share with the various offices on our floor.  Otherwise, I'd be tossing all these yummy treats in the trash on a regular basis to preserve my waistline!

By the way, Joanne calls this "Ibby's Metaphysical English Toffee".  That seemed to long and weird to give as a name to my co-workers, so I came up with "Chocolate Toffee Crackers".

Ingredients:

• Saltines to fill two 9x13 baking pans (Joanne calls for a 16-ounce box of Club Crackers, but I couldn't find those in the store I was in at the time.)
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups 60% cacao bittersweet chips by Ghiradelli (Joanne uses milk chocolate chips, but I chose to use these to keep the sweetness down.)
• 2 cups sliced almonds (Joanne called for chopped pecans, but again I couldn't find those in the store I was in at the time.)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line the baking pans with foil.  
• Spritz the pans with non-stick buttery spray.
• Line the pans completely with saltines, salt side up, covering the whole bottom.  (You can break the crackers if necessary to cover the entire bottom.)
• Set aside the baking pans while making the toffee.
• Combine the butter and brown sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
• Bring to a boil of medium hight heat, stirring constantly.
• Boil for exactly 5 minutes, again stirring constantly.
• Pour the mixture over the crackers as evenly as possible.
• Bake the pans of crackers and toffee for 10 minutes.
• Remove the pans from the oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips.  
• Give the chips a minute or two to melt and then spread them out gently over the toffee-covered crackers.
• Sprinkle the sliced almonds over the top.
• Refrigerate the pans.
• When the chocolate toffee crackers have cooled thoroughly, peel from the foil and break into pieces.