Alice in the Kitchen

Oatmeal Caramel Bars

I had a Junior League get together this week and I wanted to make something a little different for dessert.  I had made the Pillsbury recipe for Oatmeal Carmelitas in law school, and this is very similar, except you melt the caramels at home instead of using store bought caramel sauce.  This is pretty easy and could be modified to suit your taste with the addition of nuts or coconut.

Even just as this basic version, they were pretty yummy, and I got a request to add them to the blog, so here you go!

You will need:

a bag of ~40 individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped

6 tablespoons heavy cream

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups quick oats

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 sticks of butter, melted

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used mini chips)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt together the caramels and heavy cream, stirring occasionally until smooth.

3. Stir together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt.   Stir in the melted butter until well blended.  Press half of the mixture into the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking pan.  Reserve the rest.

4. Bake the crust for 8 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

5. Pour the caramel mixture over the top, and swirl the chocolate in with a spoon.

6. Crumble the remaining crust mixture over top of the caramel and chocolate.

7. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until the top is lightly toasted.

8. Cut into squares while it is still warm.