Salted Caramel Butter Bars

I have been wanting to make this recipe for a while but every time I browse my pinterest boards and see it, I never have caramels on hand. Last time I was at the store, I made sure to change that.

You know the drill by now, I love salted caramel anything. Remember? Salted Caramel Muffins, Salted Caramel Fudge and my friend Michelle's Salted Caramel Popcorn or Salted Caramel Chocolate Pie or Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies. Oh, those salted caramel chocolate chip cookies. Gah. To die for. I need to make some. Stat.

Anyways, back to what I was doing.

Salted Caramel Butter Bars
from Shelly at Cookies & Cups

Ingredients
1 lb salted butter, room temp
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons vanilla
4 cups all purpose flour
1 bag (14 oz, about 50) caramels, unwrapped
1/3 cup milk or cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon coarse sea salt (I used Kosher salt and they tasted great!)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare a 9x13 inch baking pan with nonstick spray. Beat butter, granulated sugar and powdered sugar until creamy. Mix in vanilla. Finally, sift in your flour and beat on low until dough is soft. Flatten about half of the dough into the bottom of the pan. Put the remaining dough in the refrigerator to chill. Bake crust for 20 minutes, or until edges are slightly golden brown. Let cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes.

Allow dough to cool in pan for 10-15 minutes. While the crust is baking and cooling, melt the caramel, milk/cream and vanilla in a microwave safe bowl for about a minute. Stir. Continue heating for 30 second intervals, stirring in between until completely combined.




Pour caramel over your baked crust. Sprinkle with salt.

Crumble the rest of the dough on top. Don't worry if it isn't very crumble-y. Mine wasn't, which I'm guessing was due to how warm my house is during the summer. Just chunk it across the top of the caramel. Bake for another 25 minutes, until topping is slightly golden brown and caramel is bubbling.

Allow to cool completely before cutting and removing from the pan to thoroughly enjoy.

Oh, thank you salted caramel for making everything right in the world, if  only for moments at a time.

We took these camping. They were quite a hit and complemented the super rich Snickers Brownies very well.


This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page.