These chocolate caramel bars are my signature dessert. I get asked to bring these to parties and gatherings and always get asked for the recipe. Gooey caramel and melty chocolate are sandwiched between a streusel-like topping and a shortbread-ish base.
In full disclosure, this recipe is a repost from 2012, when I shared these chocolate caramel bars for the first time. My family and I were invited to a neighbor’s surprise birthday party where the mom was celebrating a milestone birthday.
When my husband asked what we could bring, the husband mentioned that it didn’t matter. He did suspect that I would bring something sweet, and he was right. I ended up baking scotcheroos for the occasion. While my husband was thrilled with the scotcheroos, he begged for chocolate caramel bars. You see, they are one of his all-time favorite desserts. Yup, even with several hundred recipes on this blog, chocolate caramel bars are in his top 3.
This year, I enlisted his and Addie’s help. While I put the base and topping together, I had them unwrap the caramels. It’s not a fun task, but it got them both involved. And of course there were a few unwrapped caramels that had to be sampled too…
I was hoping to make a double batch of these to bring to the party but only had enough oatmeal for one recipe. Our neighbors and their friends gobbled these up in no time. I loved watching their reactions as they bit into the bars and commented about the chocolate caramel combination. It’s moments like these that make my heart burst, and I was thrilled to have made my neighbor’s birthday a memorable one.
Chocolate caramel bars
Ingredients
- 38 caramels I use Kraft, but you can certainly use homemade
- 6 Tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup oatmeal
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup chocolate chips I use semi-sweet
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Generously grease or line a standard 8" x 8" baking pan and set aside.
- Unwrap the caramels and place into a small saucepan. Add cream and melt both over low to medium heat. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, salt, soda, oatmeal, sugar and butter (you can use a stand or hand mixer if you don't want to get your hands dirty).
- Pat half of the flour mixture into your prepared pan. Bake in your preheated oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven, then pour the melted caramel mixture over baked crust; then sprinkle with chocolate chips.
- Crumble the rest of the flour mixture over the chips and bake an additional 20 minutes.