Salted Caramel Oat Bars

I hadn’t made bar cookies in a couple of weeks, so that was my plan for this week. As you can tell, I don’t really plan all that much. I try not to make very similar recipes two weeks in a row, but that’s about as complex as it gets. I had pinned this recipe a week ago and I thought it would be good. When I checked the ingredients, I found that I needed only two items: sweetened condensed milk and butterscotch chips. I stopped to get them one day, but they didn’t have butterscotch chips. That made me think of what other possibilities there are for this recipe.

A while ago, when I was searching for dairy-free chips, my husband found white and caramel chips online that didn’t contain dairy. They are also Kosher, and likely free of dairy in order to not mix meat and dairy. I have used the white chips in a couple of applications, but I had yet to try the caramel chips. I looked at this recipe and I was certain that caramel chips would work just as well as butterscotch chips. Salted caramel is certainly more common that salted butterscotch!

These bars came easily, and the caramel chips melted as easily as butterscotch chips. The original recipe said to build up the sides of the base to help enclose the filling. If you can, this is a good idea as any part of the filling that touch the sides of the pan became a very sticky situation. The bars are fairly soft and sticky, and I stored them in the refrigerator to help. I do think that I would make the base thinner, as it seems too thick. Other than that, I really like the change of using caramel chips, which pairs well with the oats and spices in these bars.

Salted Caramel Oat Bars
¾ cup packed brown sugar
12 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
2¼ cup old-fashioned oats, divided
½ cup chopped, toasted pecans
¾ teaspoon salt, divided
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 package caramel or butterscotch chips
Additional salt

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the brown sugar and butter on medium until light. Add the egg and vanilla and mix on medium to combine. With the mixer running on low, stir in the flour, 2 cups oats, pecans, ½ teaspoon salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.

Press about 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Make the filling: in a large microwave-safe bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk, chips, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth. Pour the filling on top of the oat/flour base. Crumble the remaining oat/flour mixture on top of the melted chips. You do not need to cover the filling completely. Sprinkle the bars with the remaining ¼ cup oats.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the bars are bubbly and begin to brown. Remove from the oven and cool completely. Sprinkle with additional salt before cutting into bars.

Recipe from An Edible Mosaic