Caramelitas

Eric keeps taking a spoon to my jar of homemade caramel sauce and I knew if I didn't make these caramelitas soon, I wasn't going to have any caramel left to make them. Obviously, we are both big caramel fans, which makes it incredibly strange that neither of us have had a caramelita before. Needless to say, we both loved them. Eric's not even sulking that I used up the rest of the caramel sauce making them. In fact, he wants me to make more so I can make more of these bars!

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 stick butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 cup quick oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup homemade or store bought caramel sauce
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8-inch baking dish with tin foil then grease generously with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, vanilla, and brown sugar. Pour in flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Stir until well combined. Pour half the mixture into the prepared dish and smooth with a rubber spatula (Don't worry if it looks like you won't have enough dough--this concerned me at first, too, but it all worked out).

Bake for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the first layer of cookie. Pour the caramel over the chocolate chips, spreading it slowly and equally. Drop little bits of the remaining cookie dough evenly over the top of the bars. The caramel will still show through in some places--that's okay!

Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until the top turns a golden brown.

Allow the bars to cool completely in the pan. If you try removing them from the pan or slicing them before the caramel has had time to firm up, you'll end up with a gooey mess. I refrigerated mine for 2 hours after the pan reached room temperature. Store bars in an airtight container in the fridge.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Dessert Recipes:
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Michigan Cranberry Brownies
White Chocolate Hazelnut Cream Pie
Spiced Rum Brown Butter Cookies 
Yummy Butterscotch Cookies