I made these for our Saturday night movie and my family practically devoured the entire pan. When I first found my inspiration at Pinch of Yum, I thought – caramel and chocolate in the same bar. These are going to be amazing. Glory be, I was right!!
I literally had to fight my family off with a wooden spoon. Not to mention the fact they were ready to jump into these bars when the caramel was still molten lava. Threatening a trip to the emergency room from the caramel burning their mouth finally kept them at bay until the bars had cooled at least… a little.
Not much more I can say about how amazing these bars are… there’s chocolate, and there’s caramel layered between an oatmeal crumble. Oh, aside from blowing a kiss to whom ever had the brilliant idea to jar the caramel you find in the middle of Vachon’s Ah Caramel bars. You know who you are. AMAZING! Of course you don’t have to use that caramel sauce, any jarred caramel will do.
Chocolate Caramel Oatmeal Bars
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, melted + 2 tbsp butter, melted
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 Jar of caramel (for ice cream)
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Melt the 1/2 cup of butter and stir together with the dry ingredients to create a crumble.
- Press 3/4 of the crumble into a 9×13 baking dish. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until slightly brown.
- Add the additional 2 tbsp of butter in the the remaining crumble and set aside.
- Scoop out half the jar of caramel sauce into a microwave safe dish. Just as you are removing the baked oatmeal crust from the oven, sprinkle the chocolate chips over the hot crust and microwave the caramel on high for 30 seconds. You shouldn’t need longer then that. The caramel will liquify. Pour the caramel over the chocolate chips. The chocolate chips should turn shiny which means they are very soft and can be spread with the back of a spoon – which you can do to evenly distribute the caramel and chocolate chips if you need.
- Sprinkle the remainder of the crumble overtop of all this deliciousness and back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes until the top is a golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for several hours until caramel is cool.
I was able to allow mine to cool for 3 hours before the family dug in. The caramel and chocolate was still very gooey but at least it didn’t scald their mouth.
Linked up to Michelle’s Party Plan-It and Bloom Designs!
