I am slightly obsessed with salted caramel. Homemade of course. I can't get enough of it lately. Last weekend I was trying to come up with something new to make for dessert when we had the grand-kids overnight. I spotted the salted caramel sauce I had in the freezer and these bars came to mind. I had the 4 year old take a lick of the caramel sauce and she said she didn't like it. Uh oh. But, I decided to forge ahead in hopes she'd like the finished product.
I think my son said it best when he said "Mom, these are ridiculously, insanely delicious!" They really are. They are decadent, rich and filling - so I would suggest cutting into smaller size servings. The four year old took a bite and said "Mmmm, these are good. I guess I do like caramel!" Then she asked for seconds, and while eating that she said "Grammy can we take some of these home tomorrow?" I guess she really does like caramel after all! As you can see, these were a hit in my house. ☺
Salted Caramel Bars
Caramel Sauce (Click here for recipe) + 1 tsp salt, added after removed from heat, while it's cooling
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
2 cups flour
Make the caramel sauce and set aside. Preheat oven to 325, line an 8 x 8 baking dish with aluminum foil and spray it with cooking spray.
In a large bowl cream the butter and both sugars together. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour and mix it until a soft dough forms. Press half of the dough into the bottom of the baking dish and cook for 15 minutes. Place the other half of the dough in the refrigerator while it's cooking.
Remove from oven and pour about 1 cup of the caramel sauce into the baking dish on top of the partially cooked dough. Take the remaining dough out of the refrigerator and crumble it over the top of the caramel. Place the baking dish back into the oven and cook for 30 minutes, or until top is firm. Cool completely before cutting. I stored mine in the fridge, but you don't have to.