Wondering what to do with heath bars? This guide covers how to pick them, cook them, store them, and swap them, plus 33 recipes to put them to work.

What are heath bars?

The thin chocolate-covered English toffee candy bar. The recipes that call for them here are Heath Bar Cake and Heath Bar Mocha Cheesecake and the famous Tom Cruise Cake, not granola or energy bars.

So this is a candy, not a snack bar.

The toffee center is buttery and brittle, deeply caramelized, wrapped in a thin coat of milk chocolate. What it brings to a dessert is crunch plus burnt-sugar flavor.

Chopped into bits, it scatters pockets of caramelized toffee through a soft cake or a smooth filling.

Baking With Toffee Bars

The standard move is to crush or chop the bars and fold them in. A few firm whacks with a rolling pin inside a zip-top bag gives you a mix of fine dust and small shards, which is exactly what you want.

Use them two ways. Some goes into the batter or filling for hidden crunch, and the rest gets pressed onto the top or sides while the frosting is still tacky.

The Heath Bar Mocha Cheesecake and Butterscotch-Heath Bar Biscotti both fold crushed bars into the body, so the toffee bakes in as scattered caramel pockets.

The Easy Heath Bar Cake and Tom Cruise Cake take the other route: a poke cake soaked with caramel and condensed milk, then blanketed in whipped topping under a heavy shower of crushed bars.

A no-bake dessert is the easiest home for them. In Frozen Lady Heath Dessert and No Bake Death By Chocolate, the crushed toffee just gets layered between pudding and whipped cream with no oven involved.

Pairing And Common Mistakes

Toffee was built to sit next to coffee and caramel and dark chocolate, so it slides into mocha cheesecakes and brownie sundaes without a fight. A pinch of salt and a splash of bourbon both sharpen the burnt-sugar edge.

The biggest mistake is folding crushed bars into a hot or wet mixture too early. Toffee is sugar, so it dissolves. Stir it into warm batter or a hot custard and the crunch melts into a grainy smear instead of staying as bits.

Add the toffee last, off the heat. Or save it for a topping where it stays dry.

The second issue is sogginess over time. Toffee pressed onto a frosted cake softens within a day as it pulls moisture from the cream. For a party, decorate close to serving rather than the night before.

Substitutes

Skor bars are the closest stand-in: same chocolate-over-toffee build, slightly darker chocolate. Bagged toffee bits, sold as Heath "Bits o' Brickle" or generic almond brickle, are the most convenient swap and need no crushing.

For homemade toffee, cook butter and sugar to the hard-crack stage at 300 to 310°F (149 to 154°C), spread it thin, pour melted chocolate over, then break it into shards once set. It tastes fresher than any bar.

In a pinch, caramel bits or chopped Butterfinger give you sweet crunch, though the flavor drifts. Plain caramel sauce adds the toffee taste but none of the texture, so it is not a true swap when crunch is the point.

Buying And Storage

Look for bars or bits that snap cleanly and have no gray, dusty bloom on the chocolate. Bloom is harmless but signals heat damage and a chalky bite.

The bagged toffee bits are cheaper by weight than chopping whole bars, and they save real time.

Store toffee somewhere cool and dry, tightly sealed, because the candy is hygroscopic and goes sticky and soft in humidity. Kept airtight, bars and bits last well past their printed date, often six months to a year.

Do not refrigerate it loose. The cold itself is fine, but condensation when it warms back up turns the toffee tacky. If you have crushed more than you need, freeze the extra in a sealed bag and add it straight from frozen to whatever you are topping.

Quick facts

Where to find heath bars: Heath bars are usually found in the candy section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

In Chinese

健康酒吧

British (UK) term

Heath bars

en français

les barres de santé

en español

barras de salud

Recipes using heath bars

There are 33 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 33 recipes