Butterscotch - Almond Bars Recipe

How's your 2015 so far? Mine has been pretty much a money drain. I haven't been clocking-in as much in my moneymaking rackets. But on the other hand, some plans in the drawing board are slowly taking off, so that's a good thing!

A friend recently flew in from Iloilo and brought us boxes of Biscocho (sweet bread toast). Another popular pasalubong from Iloilo (Bacolod) is their butterscotch bars. I kind of missed those soft, caramel-y and slightly sticky bites, so I decided to try my hand at making some.

I scoured the Google for recipes and came up with this simple, consolidated recipe. Here's the step-by-step progress in pictures:

1. Chop the nuts. I used lightly toasted almonds.

It can be a lot of work if you do it manually.

2. Melt butter and brown sugar

3. Add eggs. That's a nice caramel-color

4. Whisk in dry ingredients.

5. Add vanilla. Bubbly but lump-free.

Transfer the sticky glue-ish mixture onto your baking pan

Bake 80'C for 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Now, for the printable recipe:

Butterscotch-Almond Bars

Prep time: 10 min | Cook time: 8 min | Total time: 18 min

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp muscovado (raw) sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup chopped almond nuts

Instructions:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) and pre-heat oven.
2. Melt butter on low heat.
3. Add the sugars and mix until melted.
4. Turn off the heat.
5. Add eggs and mix until mixture is fully incorporated.
6. Add the dry ingredients and mix until lump free.
7. Transfer the mixture on a lightly greased baking pan.
8. Top with your choice of nuts (here, I used chopped almonds)
9. Bake at 80'C for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry,
10. Cool before cutting into small bars.