Caramel Delights

I found another one... WOW, these are are SO amazing.. I could eat the whole pan. I made these for a tray for a customer. She thought they were delicious. Cheryl loves my Chocolate Peanut Butter Gooey bars (featured 10/29/14), but she thought these ranked very high..

It is a mouthwatering combinations of caramel, chocolate and oats.

Holy amazing.. Soft and chewy with a melding of flavors.

They are rich and sweet, but so good.

These would totally melt the coldest heart, or give you a diabetic coma...

Caramel Delights

modified from livforcake.com
Ingredients
3/4 cup (1 1/2 stick) butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 10 ounce bag caramel chips (or 14 ounce bag caramels)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8 pan with tin foil and coat with cooking spray

In a bowl of a mixer, combine melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla, flour, oats and baking soda. Mix well to combine.

Press HALF  of this mixture into the bottom of the 8x8 pan. Bake for 10 minutes or until starting to brown.

While the crust is baking, make caramel sauce. In a small saucepan, add the caramels and cream. Heat over medium/low  heat. Stir until smooth. Set aside

Remove pan from the oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips evenly over the top. Gently pour the caramel sauce over the chocolate chips.

Sprinkle the caramel with sea salt. Will amp up the flavor

Crumble remaining oat/flour mixture over the caramel and return to the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.

Simple ingredients all added to the bowl at once

Baked crust with the chocolate chips added

Gently melted caramel and cream sauce

Poured over the top of the nuts

Add remaining crumble and bake for 15-20 minutes longer

These beauties are ready to be eaten

Chocolate and Caramel... some of the good things in life.

These are an easy bar. Give them a whirl and let me 

know what you think.

Nutella Blondies w/Nutella Caramel

IF YOU ARE WATCHING YOUR SUGAR INTAKE, STOP... These bars are not for you. Holy Diabetic Coma. O my goodness. But if you want a blondie that does not became a brick after one day, with a delightful homemade caramel sauce on it.... These are it. Heaven help you. These were made on Friday afternoon for a party, they still were moist and delicious on Monday. How often can you say that about Blondies. Pretty close to never. This is why I almost never make them. As good as they taste, one or two days later, in the garbage can.

I am having some alignment problem with my website.. I started to frost these bars, cut them and added the remaining frosting. Almost all the sides were covered. Ooey Gooey mess of finger licking goodness. These bars could be included in some decadent FUN... (Just saying)

OK, Nutella in the blondie and and the caramel sauce.. Totally elevated something regular to a whole new level. Think about this when you are baking and cooking. Bump it up a notch. Food does not have to be boring. Enjoy your food and your life.

There are a lot of ingredients here. Do not let this dissuade you, Just the blondie bake, add the caramel sauce when done. Just a different type of frosting. Actually, this bar calls for a glaze on top, absolutely unnecessary. There is no need.

Nutella Blondies w/Nutella Caramel

loosely adapted from cookingandbeer.com

Ingredients

Blondies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup Nutella

2 3/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup white chocolate chips

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Nutella Caramel 

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup Nutella

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with tin foil. Spray with cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium skillet, add the 2 sticks of butter. Cook over medium low heat. Stirring occasionally. The butter will foam and then start to cook. You will smell a wonderful nutty aroma. Please keep an eye, so that the butter does not burn. Once the butter turns, remove from heat and let cool slightly.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the brown butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each one. Add in vanilla and mix. Gently mix in flour, salt and baking soda. DO NOT OVER MIX. Gently fold in white chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan. Smooth out the top

In a small bowl, mix together granulated sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture over the top of the blondies in an even layer. Bake for 20-22 minutes. They will puff slightly. When done baking, remove from oven and let cool.

While the blondies are cooling, prepare the Nutella caramel. In a heavy bottom saucepan, add the granulated sugar and heat over medium heat. Regularly stir the sugar. The sugar will turn this beautiful amber brown color. Once all the clumps have melted, add the butter and continue to stir until melted. VERY slowly, add the cream into the sugar butter mixture. It will bubble, this is OK. Boil for 1-2 minutes. Then remove from heat. Immediately stir in the Nutella, vanilla extract and sea salt. Set aside and let cool.

Once the caramel is cooled, pour a thin layer over the blondies. Cut the blondies and spread out slightly. Pour the remaining caramel over the blondies the coat most of the sides. It will make each piece special.

This batter comes together quickly. If you were out of white chocolate chips, it would not be a tragedy.

All ready for the oven.

Once out of the oven, the blondies are puffed.

Plain old white sugar... nothing special

Starting to melt and form clumps

Almost totally melted. A few clumps still left. Do you see that beautiful brown color

Added the butter and then the cream to the mixture

ONE WORD ~~ Nutella

Nutella Caramel Sauce.. This could be used for so many different things..
Ice cream, plain old brownies, out of the pan...

Pouring the thin layer before I cut them

Most of the sides are covered

I took these to a party. They look a bit intimidating. 

Once the first person tried one, they were devoured. 

Everyone raved about these.

I saved a few for my Husband, 

WHOA, I got his approval. 

Chocolate, Caramel Peanut Butter Krispie Treats

This is another one of those weird days when I am trying to write a happy, perky blog and I am sad. Last Friday, my neighbor died instantly. He was 49 years old and had a massive heart attack. It was a roller coaster of a weekend and just a sad week. Today, is Rob's funeral. We really cannot believe he is gone. Rob was a large guy with a HUGE heart. His personality was even larger than his heart. Rob dearly loved his wife, children, grandchildren and family. Furthermore, he also cared for so many of us.

Rob was a people person. He worked a room and was always the center of attention.  If you asked, he would give the shirt off his back. The shirt was probably sweaty, maybe a spill on the front, but he would give it to you. Even if he could stopped for just a minute, he always said HI. This is what I am going to miss more than anything.

Rob also wanted to be my sample person. He was the benefactor of many of my test products. I wish I could find my Cherry Bar recipe. That was always his all time favorite, but he was more than willing to test the many runner ups.....as he called them.

This was also one of his favorite runner ups. 

Rob's wife, Karen is one of my best neighbors.  It is so heartbreaking to see her so sad. The other day, I brought food to their house. I cut up a bunch of different fruit for a healthy alternative and made three different bars. I did not take pictures while I was assembling, no time for that. Barely pictures of end results. Someday, I will really get my Shit together..... RIGHT.....

These Rice Krispie treats are over the top. They really did not require to much more work, and were amazing. Actually, this is something that I could have eaten the whole pan. Rob would have enjoyed me pigging out. So, a easy recipe that anyone can make!!!

Chocolate, Caramel, Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats
adapted from Keyingredients.com

Ingredients
3 tablespoons Butter
10 ounce bag of Marshmallows
7 cups Cocoa Krispies
14 bag unwrapped caramels or caramel chips
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 cups peanut butter, divided
1 12 ounce bag semisweet or dark chocolate chips

Directions

Spray or butter a 9x13 pan. Set aside

Place the butter and marshmallows  in a medium size saucepan and cook over medium heat. Stir frequently until completely melted and smooth. Turn off heat and at 2 cup intervals, stir in all the cocoa krispies until completely coated. Pour into buttered pan. Coat hands with butter or spray and press in mixture. Place in refrigerator to chill.

In another saucepan, add caramels and water over low heat. Stirring frequently until smooth. Add 1 cup of peanut butter to the caramel mixture and stir until completely blended. Pour onto the chilled krispie mixture and spread to the edges. Place the pan back in the refrigerator.

Over low heat, melt chocolate chips in a saucepan. Stir frequently, so that the chocolate does not scorch. When melted, add the remaining 1/2 cup of peanut butter to the mixture until blended. Pour chocolate mixture over the caramel layer, spreading to the edges in an even layer. Place dessert in the refrigerator to chill. Once chilled, cut into squares. Eat.

Mixing the Cocoa Krispies with the caramels, peanut butter and chocolate is like a perfect combination of flavors. Pure Heaven. And NOT just a Rice Krispie treat. Totally kicking it up a notch.

Rob, I will miss you. You were truly an amazing person. Thank you for being my friend and neighbor.