Lazy Heath Bars

I’ve been cleaning my house like a crazy person for two days. If you know me, you know this is NOT normal behavior. Usually I’m perfectly content for my house not to resemble a museum or some kind of scientific lab. I prefer to spend my time on the floor doing puzzles or coloring rather than scrubbing. Things are clean enough. Or, as my father-in-law used to say “good enough for government work”. He was allowed to say things like that. Jeff worked for the IRS for 20+ years. When houseguests are coming however, I become a short freckled version of Adrian Monk. Ok. Not quite that obsessive. Close though.

All this cleaning is hard work and gives me a powerful appetite for something sweet. Yeah. Let’s be real. Just breathing in and out gives me a hankerin’ for something delicious. I think we should have dessert after every meal, not just dinner. But scrubbing floors, cleaning out closets and banning all dust from my furniture amplifies my resting sweet tooth into a monster! Unfortunately, all the cleaning also zaps every ounce of my baking energy and uses it for elbow grease. It doesn’t help matters that I have two preschoolers underfoot. Like little tornadoes of messy, they epitomize the saying “Cleaning the house while the children are growing is like shoveling snow while it’s still snowing.” Thank you Erma Bombeck.

Anyway. I needed something to quell the goodie goblin in a bad way. The title of this recipe including the word “lazy” made it an instant winner. That’s exactly how I felt. Oh, so lazy. One bowl and about 3 minutes later these were in the oven. I actually had to wait for the oven to get preheated…they were that fast. And, there are only four ingredients.

Here’s how we do this thing. Melt some butter and dump a cake mix (dry) into it.

Then add two eggs.

Stir until combined. No beaters needed. I just used a spatula.

Mix in some toffee bits. I love love love the Heath variety. They have chocolate. Or you can use chocolate chips. M&Ms. Mini Reese’s. Anything you have on hand. Use up the bottom of the bags of white, dark, butterscotch, peanut butter or milk chocolate chips. I always have just a couple handfuls left at the bottom of the bag. It drives me nuts.

The batter will be suuuuuuuuper thick. That’s ok. Dump it into a greased 9×13 pan. I accidentally greased a 9×11 casserole dish. Felt too lazy to wash it and do it in the right size, I just cooked mine slightly longer. Don’t be tempted to do a square pan though, that will make your cook time way longer and the finished product will be hard on the outside and uncooked in the middle.

Here’s the fun part. As if the smell of cake batter, chocolate and toffee isn’t fun enough. Butter your hands. Oh, if you want to be all fancy you can use an offset spatula to press the batter in, but it’s more fun using your hands. Promise. You’ll feel like a kid again.

Get it all pressed in. It’s ok if you barely cover your pan. These are supposed to be bars, not a cake. It’ll rise as it bakes.

Allow to cool and then cut into bars. Devour.

These are perfectly set on the outside and a little bit gooey on the inside. The toffee and chocolate are simply divine.

I imagine if you make these with just plain chocolate chips, they’ll taste like the softest most glorious chocolate chip cookie you’ve ever had.

Chocolate and toffee (aka: hard caramel) are totally my weakness. Caramel in all its forms gets me every time. These are no exception. Absolutely scrumptious! Enjoy!

Lazy Heath Bars
adapted from I’m a Lazy Mom

1 box yellow or white cake mix (15 ounce box)
2 eggs beaten
5 T melted butter
2 C Heath toffee bits, M&M’s or mini chocolate chips

Melt butter. Allow to cool slightly then add cake mix (dry), eggs and toffee bits (or whatever you are using).
Press into a greased 9×13 pan and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.