Carmelitas {Secret Recipe Club}

Carmelitas - Chocolate, Caramel, Oatmeal Bars

I’ve been MIA from the Secret Recipe Club for the past two months.  We’ve been out of the country in Peru for the summer having an experience that was truly life changing.  But we’re back and slowly getting back into the swing of life at home.

My assignment this month was Cheese With Noodles.  First of all, best name ever!  And Anna’s blog is wonderful!  She has so many amazing recipes.  She was assigned to my blog back in December of 2014 and made our White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies.  So I was super excited to be able to stalk look over her blog and pick a recipe.

It was tough to narrow down my choices to just one.  Anna’s Triple Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Fudge Icing looked delicious!  Then I saw her Red Velvet Cookie Sandwiches and I thought that was what I was going to make.  I should have stopped looking at that point because then her recipe for Bizcochitos caught my eye.  Stop the madness!  Why couldn’t I just stop looking and decide?!?!  Then the mother of all bar cookies caught my eye.  The Carmelitas.  I chose to make the Carmelitas because, hello!  They looked amazing!  And any recipe that won the Pillsbury Bake Off Competition is awesome in my book.

Carmelitas - Chocolate, Caramel, Oatmeal Bars

I took Anna’s advice on reducing the amount of cream from 1 cup to 1/2 cup because I like my caramel a bit chewy also.  Great idea Anna!  They were perfect!

Carmelitas - Chocolate, Caramel, Oatmeal Bars

 If you’re looking for a cookie bar recipe I am telling you!  These are amazing.  They were gone in a day and a half when I took them to the beach for a family vacation.  A day and a half!  That’s a testament to how delicious they were.

Carmelitas - Chocolate, Caramel, Oatmeal Bars

Carmelitas

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups butter, melted
  • 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
  • 2 cups quick oats
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 12 oz bag chocolate chips
  • 18 oz soft caramel candies
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
  3. Place the butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract, oats, flour and baking soda into a medium mixing bowl and stir until combined.
  4. Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
  5. Bake until the base is golden, about 15 minutes.
  6. Remove pan from oven and top evenly with chocolate chips.
  7. Place caramel and cream into a medium sauce pan and heat over medium, stirring frequently, until completely smooth.
  8. Pour evenly over cookie base. Sprinkle the remaining cookie dough over the caramel and return the baking dish to the oven. Bake until the top is golden, about 20 to 25 minutes.
  9. Let bars cool completely (about 12 hours) before cutting, it takes quite a while for the caramel to cool down, for the cookie base to solidify properly, and for the flavors of the chocolate and caramel to meld nicely. You can speed up the process by sticking the pan in the refrigerator, just be sure to let it sit out for about half an hour before attempting to cut up the bars.
  10. Enjoy!
https://makingmemorieswithyourkids.com/2015/09/carmelitas-secret-recipe-club/

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Comments

  1. Those look awesome. I’m a sucker for a good bar cookie, and the layer of chocolate in the middle caught my interest 🙂 Great SRC choice!

  2. Wow…. these look fantastic! I can understand why they were gone so fast

  3. Erin, I’m glad you liked the Carmelitas so much! Aren’t they good? We love them. Also, I have made your Pop Tart cookies I think 3 times. They are indeed even better with vanilla chips than semisweet. I had to use semisweet the first time because the bag of vanilla chips that I thought was in the pantry couldn’t be found when it was time to add them. Naturally, I did find the bag of them later! My favorite combo is vanilla chips, blueberry Pop Tarts, and lemon extract. They taste kind of like cheesecake cookies.

    You also may like to know that in the days after I made your Pop Tart cookies, I also made your Snickerdoodles and Macaroons and posted about both of them on my blog. My husband loved them, and he usually has a huge preference for plain chocolate chip cookies.

    I love how creative you are! The slug candy completely cracked me up when I saw it last night! Definitely will have to make it sometime 🙂

  4. These look amazing! Anything caramel is a great choice as far as I’m concerned. I had fun cooking from your blog this month!!

  5. What a great pick this month – they look wonderful and chewy!

  6. It is always so hard to stop looking, isn’t it? I’m glad you kept looking this time, because these look absolutely amazing. I’m definitely pinning this!

    Some of my favorite recipes originated with Pillsbury Bake Off recipes. It really is hard to go wrong there.

  7. Erin, You’re a woman after my own heart. Carmel and chocolate is a combination that can’t be beat and these look positively scrumptious! I’ll have to check out your blog for posts on Peru – I remember when you mentioned that you were going and from the brief comment in this post, I’m definitely interested in hearing more about it.

    • Thanks, Laura. Our trip was amazing! I’ve posted a few post and will be posting more so please come back =o)

  8. Erin, These DO look amazing! They look so dense, and that chocolate in the middle, with that topping…my oh my!

  9. P.S. …and Peru! Wow, I want to hear about it!

    • Thanks Sue! It was totally amazing. I’ve posted some Peruvian recipes with pictures from out trip and I’ll be posting more for sure. So much delicious food there!

  10. Dropping by from group c to say hi. 🙂 You had me at caramel and chocolate. These bars look amazing.

  11. Oh WOW! I just adore caramlitas and have them on my to make list. These look absolutely wonderful – mouthwatering!

  12. Drooling!

  13. This looks fantastic, we will love it! Hope you are having a great day and thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

  14. It’s been a while since I’ve visited your blog, and I see I’ve missed a lot!
    These carmelitas look FANTASTIC !!
    Lately I’m baking a lot with oats
    I’m saving this great recipe!

  15. We love Carmelitas… I have lost my recipe which has caramel & chocolate in the middle… can’t tell you how many of those I’ve made !! So glad I found this one.