Ooey, Gooey, Caramel Goodness

I wanted to take a moment to thank each and every person who voted for me in the Death by Chocolate contest. Unfortunately, I didn't win the trip... but there's always next time! ;) Congrats to Cathy of Not Eating Out in New York for the winning entry! (I won't pretend I'm not jealous.) Now, on to the ooey, gooey, caramel goodness...

I first saw these on Kyla's Cookies. I love anything with caramel, so I knew I wanted to try these when I saw them. I actually cut back on the amount of the chocolate chips by half, and was glad that I did. Otherwise, I think the flavor of the caramel sauce gets obscured by all the chocolate. I also decided to make my own caramel sauce instead of buying jarred sauce.


I am not sure where she got the original recipe as it was not cited on her blog. I did a search and my best guess is that she either adapted this recipe or this recipe to make these bars.

Toll House Caramel Bars
from Kyla's Cookies (original recipe source unknown)


2-1/3 cups flour, divided
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup butter, melted
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used 1 cup)
1 jar (12 ounces) caramel sauce (I made my own caramel sauce, see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a medium sized bowl combine 2 cups of flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and oats. Stir in butter.

In a separate bowl, mix 1/3 cup of flour with jar of caramel sauce TIP: Coat rubber spatula and bowl with flour or it is a mess.

Reserve 1 cup of that mixture and press the rest into a 13 x 9 greased and floured baking pan.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven.

Spread the caramel sauce on top evenly. Then sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the caramel sauce. Crumble the rest of the oats/flour mixture on top. Bake for about another 20 minutes, until top is golden brown and caramel bubbles.


Caramel Sauce
from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody (original recipe from Baking: From My Home To Yours, by Dorie Greenspan)

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 tbsp light corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

Put the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, stir just to combine the ingredients and then put the pan over medium-high heat. Heat, without stirring , until the caramel turns deep amber, 5-10 minutes. Lower the heat a bit and, standing back from the saucepan add the cream and butter. When the spatters are less vehement, stir to calm down the caramel and dissolve any lumps.