Ooey Gooey Cookie Bars

Raise your hand if you overdid it a little bit on Easter candy. My weakness is jelly beans. I have a method to my jelly bean consumption. Yellows and oranges go first. Then I might move on to pinks. If I'm really snacky I'll succumb to whites and purples. But I'll never be desperate enough for black jelly beans. Those I set aside for my mother, who is absolutely obsessed. When I explained to her that you could buy bags of just black jelly beans, you'd think I'd given her a million dollars.

But anyway, a lot of jelly beans have been eaten. I'm kind of relieved to see them leave my beloved Walgreens. 

I woke up one day this week and just decided it was time for a sugar detox. I made old fashioned oats with almond milk for breakfast. I snacked on 100 calories of almonds mid-morning. I ate string cheese, fruit, and lean ham for lunch. And then I got home and decided that was good enough. Time to bake stuff.

I was inspired by a bag of wrapped caramels a teacher left on the free crap table at school. (Do you guys have a free crap table at your work? I swear, the weirdest stuff ends up on that table: umbrellas, framed art, Tupperware...) I slipped the caramels into my bag and immediately started brainstorming (i.e., Pinteresting) what I could bake. Enter Caramel Cookie Bars.

Salted caramel cookie bars

These are essentially a cookie bar with a layer of caramel in the middle. They are super easy to make and don't require a mixer as the sugar and butter don't need to be creamed, just mixed.

Mise en place-ing is a critical step

First we mise en place, which is a fancy way of saying get your stuff in order, girlfriend. Measure your ingredients, make a lot of extra dishes, and check that you don't have to run the store for anything. 

Line an 8x8 with aluminum and coat with cooking spray

Then we brown butter. This is actually an optional step where we, um, brown the butter. Browning the butter just makes everything taste a little nutty or caramel-y. You don't need to do this step, but lately I've been trying it out to see how it changes the flavor of my favorite recipes. 

So to brown it, we just melt down butter over medium heat on the stove. It's gonna do all kinds of things while it browns. Today, mine got a little foamy and I almost had a volcano on my hands. Just when you think you're doing it wrong, the color will change, and you'll smell the butter develop a little nutty smell. That's when you take it off the stove.

Can you see the caramel color of the butter in the pan? That's the color you want.

Pour the melted butter into a mixing bowl. I'd recommend letting it cool for several minutes. (I didn't, and things got weird in my kitchen for a little bit.) After it cools slightly, toss in your sugar and mix, allowing the sugar to dissolve and blend with the butter. 

Make sure it's definitely cool before you add in the eggs, otherwise you'll have some really weird scrambled eggs on your hands. And use high-quality vanilla. (Mine was a gift, handmade by my dear friend Elizabeth. I'll have to do a follow-up post on how to make vanilla. It's so easy and so awesome.)

Blend, blend, blend. Add in your flour and salt. Don't overmix. At this point, you really need to ensure that the dough is not hot, or else you'll have the same problem I did- melted chocolate chips. Oy.

This shouldn't look like a pan of brownies. Sigh.

Scoop half of the batter into the prepared baking pan. Mine was hard to squish around, and when I did, all my chocolate chips melted. Boo.

Now prepare the caramel layer. Heat unwrapped caramels with some heavy cream, stir, and pour over the first layer. Use a spatula to kind of spread it around a little bit (it helps if you coat the spatula with cooking spray).

 

Plop the rest of the batter/dough whatever we're calling it, on top of the caramel layer. Disclosure: I had a hard time spreading the second half over the caramel layer. I kind of threw it on there, and said a quick prayer that it would go well in the oven.

It's too soon for me to judge these bars, as they're still setting up on the counter and firming up. I wish I'd allowed my butter to cool more; these don't look very pretty since my chocolate chips got all melty. But they are sweet. And the caramel is amazing.

I might toss them in the fridge, or let them rest overnight before trying them again. My brave friends who sampled them, however, gave them two sticky thumbs up.

I'd love to hear from you guys about how you bake with caramels, in case I ever stumble upon some more on the free crap table.

Happy weekend!! -Jill