OK, you suddenly get an overwhelming desire for a caramel chocolate chip bar cookie. You search the internet and all you find are recipes that either require purchased caramel sauce or even more recipes that call for melting caramels together with evaporated milk or heavy cream. What? Who wants to unwrap a gazillion caramels or go to the grocery store to purchase caramel sauce? Which BTW, is not cheap. When you can bloody well prepare caramel sauce from scratch in about 10 minutes!

OK, granted you must have butter, brown sugar, salt, heavy cream, and vanilla extract on hand. And most of the time I do have all these ingredients safely tucked away in either my pantry or fridge.

So, when I got frustrated by all the recipes I was reviewing, I decided to step up and figure out at least the caramel part on my own. (I was really hoping to find the perfect recipe online so that I didn’t have to think too hard. I told you I was getting lazier and lazier.)

I finally found the “next to perfect” recipe on the melskitchencafe.com site. The crust part I followed to the T. But I didn’t use Mel’s caramel sauce recipe because mine is easier to make and perfect every time. But the crust recipe is Mel’s and absolutely delicious. So, thank you Mel. And I almost forgot, I wanted this to be a salted caramel bar, so I added the final touch. A light sprinkling of flakey sea salt on top.  

Anyway, if you too are a chocoholic who strongly believes that caramel (and especially salted caramel) is God’s gift to humankind, this is the bar cookie for you!

I reverently hope you love this bar cookie as much as I do.

And as always, peace and love to all.  

For the Caramel Sauce:

1 c. packed brown sugar

½ c. (1 stick) unsalted butter

pinch fine sea salt

½ c. heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Whisk butter, brown sugar, and salt together over medium heat in a small heavy saucepan until brown sugar has dissolved completely. (This happens after the mixture comes to a boil and is allowed to burble for a couple of minutes and it turns kind of shiny. Continue whisking the whole time the mixture is on the heat.)

Remove from heat and gently whisk in the heavy cream and vanilla extract.  

Set aside to cool while you make the crust.

For the Bar Cookies:

1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 c. brown sugar, packed

1½ c. unbleached all-purpose flour, fluffed

½ tsp. fine sea salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1½ c. old-fashioned oats

caramel sauce (from recipe above) or 1 generous c. purchased caramel sauce  

1 c. semisweet chocolate chips (or chips of choice)

flakey sea salt 

Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan (preferably glass) with cooking spray.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar together.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, sea salt, and baking soda together. Stir in the old-fashioned oats. Add to the butter mixture and mix just until combined.

Press about 2/3rds of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. (I build up the sides a bit as I am pressing the dough into the pan. This “lip” helps contain the caramel and chocolate chips during the second baking.)

Bake the bottom crust in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 13-14 minutes or until the crust is lightly golden and puffy.

Remove from oven and carefully spread the caramel sauce evenly over the partially cooked crust with an offset spatula. Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the caramel. Finish by dropping small chunks of the remaining cookie mixture on top.

Bake for another 12-13 minutes or until the edges of the crust are golden and the caramel is bubbling.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the pan before cutting into squares.

Please note: These bars are addictive. And very, very rich. A small piece is plenty. (You can always have more.) And BTW, my recipe for caramel sauce is great on ice cream. Or any time you need caramel sauce. Just saying!