Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars

On Saturday afternoon when Eric informed me we were having dinner at his friend's house the first question out of my mouth was, "What are we eating?"  The second was, "What are we having for dinner besides meat and bread?"  The answer to my first question was deer meat and the second was baked beans, which surprised me because 95% of the time those two are in charge of dinner it consists of meat and bread.  Often the bread is simply a loaf of white bread. I like meat and I like bread, but I need side dishes with my main course.  I was already out and about so I pulled up pinterest on my phone and found a couple of recipes I could whip up that afternoon.  I seriously don't know what I did before pinterest and if the site ever goes away I am screwed because almost ALL of my favorite recipes are on my Recipe Favorites Board.

I had been craving some homemade mac and cheese for a while and stumbled across a no-boil, no-rue homemade mac and cheese recipe on one of my favorite food blogs. I was a little nervous about making it, but it turned out delicious!  You will not regret making this one.

I also wanted to make something sweet because #1 I have a sweet tooth and #2 there was going to be a pretty good crowd for dinner so I knew Eric and I would not end up eating the entire thing ourselves.  Enter the Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bar or as I like to call it a little slice of heaven.

What You Need:

2 1/8 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

12 TBSP butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled to room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups chocolate chips

10 oz caramel candy squares, unwrapped

3 Tbsp heavy cream

sea salt, for sprinkling over caramel and bars

How to Make It:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 11x7 (2quart) baking dish and set aside.

2. Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl, set aside.

3. In a mixer, cream together melted butter and sugars until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

4. In a microwave safe bowl, combine caramels and heavy cream. Microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval.  This should take roughly 2 minutes total (4 intervals).

5. Press half of the cookie dough in the bottom of the greased baking dish. Pour hot caramel over the cookie dough and sprinkle with sea salt. Let caramel set for a minute or 2, then drop spoonfuls of remaining cookie dough over caramel. Press down gently with a spatula or your fingers until caramel is covered. Sprinkle sea salt over cookie dough.

6. Bake cookie bars for 30-35 minutes or until the top of the bars are light golden brown. Cool pan on a wire rack to room temperature and cut into bars to serve.

These were seriously some of the best cookie bars I have ever eaten.  We heated them up in the microwave and served them with vanilla ice cream and they were a hit!

We ate nearly the entire pan, but had just a little bit left....until we got home and disaster struck.  This, my friends, is why men should never be trusted to carry food containers.

To be honest I think I was more upset about the cookie bars than I was about my baking dish. And yes because it was a Pyrex dish it shattered into a million zillion little pieces despite the fact that he attempted to "catch" the pan with his foot as it was falling.  I still can't figure out how he dropped it since it was in a bag with the macaroni dish.  RIP delicious cookie bars. I might have to bring you back from the dead this weekend. =)