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In case you haven’t figured it out, I’ve been in a sort of rut lately. Not really motivated to blog, or even bake and cook. It’s most unfortunate. I’m hoping it’ll get better soon because I’ve been bookmarking a bunch of recipes that I want to try! I did have this recipe bookmarked for quite a while now, and I even bought the caramels before I moved with the intention to make them a couple months ago. Obviously that didn’t happen… (and yes, I should really try to make my own caramel but it scares me! My first attempt years ago failed miserably, as in it burned, and I haven’t tried since.)

But about these cookie bars, they use the best chocolate chip cookie recipe which is chewy and scrumptious, adds a gooey layer of salted caramel, and a sprinkling of salt for a sweet/salty combo. These cookie bars are absolutely divine. And I wasn’t very eager to share! My husband and I ate most of them, but I did share a couple with my sister, because I’m that nice! Hehe. I mostly wanted to get them out of the house to resist temptation. 🙂 But you should totally make these… they’re worth turning the oven on!!!

One Year Ago: Pumpkin-Cranberry Bread and Zuppa Toscana

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Yield: 16 cookie bars

2¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
10 ounces caramel candy squares, unwrapped
3 tablespoons heavy cream
Fleur de sel or other sea salt, for sprinkling

Preheat oven 325 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients; set aside. In a large bowl, mix butter and sugars by hand or with a mixer until thoroughly combined. Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add dry ingredients and mix slowly until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine the caramels and heavy cream. Microwave on high for 2 minutes, or until the caramels are melted, making sure to stir every 20 seconds.

Press half of the cookie dough into the prepared pan with either your fingers or a spatula, smoothing the top. Pour the hot caramel over the cookie dough in the pan and spread into an even layer, leaving a small border without caramel along the edges; sprinkle the caramel with sea salt. Take the remaining dough and flatten bits between your fingers to create shingles; place the shingles on top of the caramel, slightly overlapping them until all the caramel is covered. Smooth out the top layer of dough. Sprinkle the bars with additional sea salt.

Bake the cookie bars for 30 minutes, or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Cool the bars in the pan on a wire rack to room temperature, then refrigerate for about 30 minutes to allow the caramel layer to set. Cut into squares and serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.

Source: Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

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