Not your Granny's Toffee Bars

It feels like 2012 just started a few months ago, but as you can probably tell, the 2012 holiday season is right around the corner.  With that holiday season, comes holiday parties with co-workers, friends and family.  If you are in my family, the holiday parties are not complete without grandma's toffee bars.  For as long as I can remember, the night doesn't end until grandma breaks out her round metal cookie tins filled with toffee bars and we all fight over who is stealing them and taking the loot home.  While my grandma's will always, always taste better than mine, I really wanted to find a way to come up with a healthier version to indulge in while everyone else is enjoying the real deal.

Toffee Bars
2/3 C-Coconut Oil (I measured this white the oil was in its solid state)
2/3 C-Honey
1 TB-Blackstrap Molasses
2-Cups of Gluten Free Flour (I have listed the mix that I use below)
3 TB Vanilla
1 TB-Ground chia seeds (mix with 3 TB of water first)
2 bars (about 6oz) of chocolate of your choice-I used Ghirardelli Midnight Reverie 86% dark chocolate
1/4 C-walnut pieces (optional)

Gluten Free Flour Mix
There are many options out there for mixing your own gluten free flour, but a lot of them use coconut flour and my husband is not a fan.  I usually have this on hand ready to use, so this mix makes more than needed for this recipe
3C-Sorghum flour
1C-Tapioca flour
1/2C-almond flour
1TB-Xanthan Gum

Preheat oven to 350

Begin by mixing Coconut oil, honey and molasses in a stand mixer or a bowl with a hand mixer.  Add the flour slowly and then the vanilla and chia seed mixture.  Allow to mix thoroughly.  For anyone reading this that is in my family, yes, the consistency will be slightly wetter than grandma's, but trust me on this one.

Oil an 8x8 pan and pour dough into the pan.  Use the back of a spoon to spread the dough as evenly as possibly over the pan and stick in the preheated oven.  Let cook for about 15 minutes.  Watch carefully, you want this still slightly soft and golden brown around the edges, but not still cakey and super soft.  My oven took about 17 minutes.  Take the pan out of the oven and break your chocolate into chunks and distribute the pieces across the dough.  Stick the pan back in the oven for about 2 more minutes to melt the chocolate.  Lastly, take the pan out, spread the chocolate with the back of a spoon and sprinkle the walnuts.

Cut into pieces while still soft and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!