Toffee Butter Crunch 1 cup butter or margarine 1 cup sugar 3 Tbsp water 1 Tbsp light corn syrup ½ cup coarsely chopped pecans or toasted almonds ¾ cup semisweet chocolate pieces ½ cup finely chopped pecans or toasted almonds Butter sides of a heavy 2-quart saucepan. In the saucepan, melt butter. Add sugar, water, and corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium heat till sugar dissolves and mixture comes to boiling. Continue cooking to 290 degrees (soft-crack stage), stirring only as necessary to prevent sticking (mixture should boil gently over entire surface). Watch carefully after 280 degrees. Remove from heat. Quickly stir in ½ cup coarsely chopped pecans or toasted almonds. Immediately turn mixture onto a buttered baking sheet. Wait for 2 to 3 minutes for candy surface to firm, then sprinkle with the semisweet chocolate pieces. Let stand for 1 to 2 minutes. When chocolate pieces are softened, spread evenly over the hardened candy; sprinkle with ½ cup finely chopped pecans or toasted almonds. Chill till chocolate is firm; break into pieces. Makes about 1½ pounds. **Protect brittle from dampness by storing them in an airtight container.

I buy Land O Lakes Butter. It used to come in the "smaller" brick shaped box but now I only see it in the flatter packaging with the shorter fatter sticks. I found this our when I did some exploring. The long, thin sticks are "Elgin," or eastern pack sticks. They are 4 3/4" by 1 1/4" by 1 1/4". The shorter, fatter sticks are Western-pack style butter sticks, which are 3 1/8" long by 1 1/2" by 1 1/2". Both have the same amount of butter (8 Tablespoons = 1/2 cup). I personally love the Eastern sticks. They don't stick to the top of my butter dish and also fit my old crystal dish better.

Caramel Cheetos® - Linda C 2 cups light brown sugar 1 cup margarine - yes, for this one you must use margarine 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 - 21 oz. pkg. Cheetos® - crunchy kind Mix sugar, margarine and corn syrup in pan. Bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes no longer, stirring often. Remove from heat and add soda. Stir until light in color and foamy. Spray a roasting pan (deep 10 x 14) with Pam. Put Cheetos® in pan. Pour the mixture over Cheetos® and stir, coating each piece. Place in oven at 250 degrees. Bake for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes. Immediately, pour onto wax paper, or cookie sheets, sprayed with Pam. (This is the hard part.) VERY QUICKLY spread out as thin as possible. If not quick and spread out as thin as possible, you will get a big hard glob. After about 5 minutes, pull/break these apart even more and loosen them from the wax paper. If you don't, you'll have wax paper stuck to them when you go to eat them. You will regret it if you don't double the batch as guests are going to demand MORE! You can bake batches together and add an extra 20 minutes to bake time. I do them separately because of having to work so quickly to keep them apart at the end. The one batch can almost get too hard while working with the other batch.

Forgot to mention that the original recipe indicated: Drop by teaspoonfuls and bake for 15-17 minutes. I make a lot of cookies and I know that this is way too long for this size cookie. I dropped mine by tablespoonfuls and baked them for exactly 12 minutes. They are crunchy but not hard! At first I thought they were a little dry but I think it's the bran in it. When they're cooled, they're very good. I've been eating some for breakfast with my coffee... I figure..heck.. they got rolled oats and bran! can't be that bad for breakfast.. LOL Our dog really loves them! She just hears you in the cookie jar and gets really excited! At first I hesitated to make this recipe but decided to give it a try because of the oats and bran. Glad I did because I will make this often... healthier than your usual cookie. Because I love to bake, I try to use brown sugar and/or honey instead of white sugar... the oats and bran is a bonus here! Found this recipe in my drawer.. had put it there 15+ years ago and never bothered to try it.