Caramel-Chocolate Oatmeal Bars {Caramelitas!}

Ingredients and Equipment Needed

This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.

Ingredients

• Butter – Real, salted butter.
• Brown sugar – Golden or dark.
• Eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Baking soda
• Salt
• All-purpose flour
• Quick cooking rolled oats – You could use regular rolled oats if that’s all you have, just expect a more textured cookie.
• Semi-sweet mini chocolate chips – The mini chips spread the chocolate out well, but you could always use regular chocolate chips as well, just give them a rough chop.
• Chopped walnuts or pecans – You can leave the nuts off if you want to (or need to) but I do really love the texture and flavor they add, and I like to toast mine first.
• Caramels – Any soft caramels will technically work here. The little Kraft ones you find in the baking aisle are alright in a pinch. But if you really want to bump these up a notch, look for some high quality soft caramels! I love Peter’s Caramel, which comes in a 5 pound loaf (yes loaf!) and you can just cut off what you need. It lasts a long time in the pantry. But any high quality soft caramels will work! Readers have reported that this recipe also works well with jarred caramel sauce or dulce de leche.
• Milk

Equipment

• 10 x 15 inch baking pan – One thing I love about this recipe is that it’s written for a 10 x 15 inch pan.  I got a pan that size for a gift a few years back and at first I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it, since I usually need 9×13″ pans.  But this pan has become one of the most-used dishes in my kitchen.  You can see in the photo below that it’s just a little bit bigger than a 9×13″.  I often use it when I know I need to stretch a recipe just a little bit to feed more people, but I don’t want to double it.  You can buy sheet pans in 10 x 15 as well, and that works great for this recipe, too.  If you don’t have a 10×15, just use something close. 
  
  Readers have reported good results using a standard 9×13 as well. They’ll be pretty thick but still delicious! They’ll need to bake on the longer end, somewhere between 25-30 minutes.

How to Make Caramel-Chocolate Oatmeal Bars

Step 1: Prepare The Base

1. We start off with normal ingredients for a soft, sweet cookie. Mix up an easy batter and throw some oats in there. 
2. You’ll need to divide the dough at this point.  Sometimes when a recipe tells you to remove half, or a third of a mixture it can be a little tricky, so here’s a little tip.  Press your dough into an even layer and then score it with your spatula, as seen in the photo below.  That will ensure you’re taking out as much as you’re supposed to. In this case, it’s 2/3 of the mixture, and we’re going to press it into the bottom of a foil-lined pan.
3. Drop chunks of dough on the bottom of the pan and then press it into an even layer. Next, sprinkle on a layer of chocolate chips.  I like mini chips because they distribute better, so if I just have regular chips I give them a quick, rough chop. And also a few chopped pecans or walnuts.

Step 2: Prepare the Caramel Filling, Top, and Bake

1. For this recipe I cut up about 9 ounces of Peter’s Caramel and melted it with just a few tablespoons of regular milk until it was creamy and smooth. And that pours right on top of our chocolate and nuts.
2. Then we take the remaining reserved dough and sprinkle it on top and pop the pan in the oven for about 20 minutes. The two cookie layers bake up soft, sandwiching the caramel and chocolate in the middle.  On the top, little bubbles of caramel peek through the cookie cracks.
3. Cool completely, cut into squares, and enjoy!