Caramel Cookie Bars
I often get asked to make snacks or desserts for various events and fundraisers. I really enjoy doing this but it can get very time consuming. To combat the time spent in the kitchen I tend to reach for some of my 'go to' recipes. The ones that are insanely delicious, seem as if you slaved in the kitchen all day but are easy to make!
These caramel cookie bars are a crowd pleaser! It combines chocolate chip cookie dough (obviously a win for me!), caramel and sea salt. The sweet and salty combo is so good! The other nice thing about these is that they and simple and fast to make. The hardest part of these is unwrapping those pesky little caramel squares (if you have kids, enlist them to help with this part!)
Ingredients for cookie dough:
2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tspn salt
1 cup light brown sugar not packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 egg yolk, room temperature
2 tspn vanilla extract
chocolate chips - as many as you desire!
Ingredients for caramel filling:
10 ounces caramel candy squares, unwrapped (usually one bag)
3 tbsp heavy cream
sea salt - as much as desired
Process:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease a 9-inch square pan.
Mix together the melted butter, brown sugar & white sugar until fluffy. Mix in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract on low. Slowly add the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips. Press half of the cookie dough into the greased pan.
In a pot or microwave-safe bowl combine the caramels and heavy cream. Melt on low until the caramels are melted into the cream. Pour the hot caramel over the dough cookie dough. Top the caramel with desired amount of sea salt - don't get too crazy as you will top the cookie dough with sea salt as well.
Top the caramel sauce with the remaining cookie dough. Drop pieces of cookie dough with your hands all throughout the pan (see picture above). Top the cookie dough with more sea salt.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the edges of the cookie bar are golden brown. For a gooey, messy bar eat right away or for a more polished, presentable bar wait to to eat and cut until the caramel cookie bars have cooled.
Enjoy and let me know what you think!!