During our spring break staycation, I spent one afternoon in the kitchen baking up a storm. I filled an entire shelf in our deep freezer with baked goods… and of course, we ate a bunch too.
Most of the recipes I tried were brand new to me, and one of our favorites were these Oatmeal Caramel Bars.
I love 3 things about this recipe (besides the taste):
- It uses really simple ingredients that almost anyone should have on hand.
- It’s very quick and easy to make.
- It makes 2 large 9″ x 13″ pans so you’ll have plenty to eat now and freeze for later!
Recipe for Oatmeal Caramel Bars:
Ingredients
- 3 sticks of butter
- 3 c. brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 T. vanilla
- 2 t. baking soda
- 3 1/2 c. flour
- 4 1/2 c. quick-cooking oats
- 2 c. chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, or dried fruit (optional)
- 1 c. chopped nuts (optional)
- 2 7-oz. bags caramels (about 45-50 caramels)
- 1/4 c. milk
- 1 T. vanilla
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350*F
- Grease and flour TWO 9″ x 13″ baking dishes; set aside
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until combined
- Add in the flour, baking soda, and oats (your bowl will be quite full!)
- Press 1/3 of the mixture into each of the 9″ x 13″ pan (you will use 2/3 of the mixture total)
- Sprinkle with chocolate, dried fruit, or nuts (if desired)
- In a saucepan, combine caramels, milk, and vanilla — cook over low heat until caramels are melted.
- Pour caramel mixture over the oat mixture in each pan
- “crumble” the remaining 1/3 of the oats mixtures over the caramel in each pan
- Bake at 350* F for 25 minutes or until the top is brown and the center is set.
- Cool and cut into bars
This recipe is sooooo good. And I love that you can add all sorts of “extras” to fit your family’s taste buds. We’re big chocolate lovers in our house so I always add a healthy dose of chocolate chips, but dried fruit and nuts might be a nice combination too!
Also, in case you are wondering, I just pulled another batch out of our freezer and they taste fantastic!
What mix-ins would you add to this recipe?
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Debbie Hebda says
These look awesome!
I have a son who has a milk allergy, could we substitute milk with almond or rice milk?
thanks.
Debra Kapellakis says
These look and sound yummy. I need to get some caramels and I am ready. thank you for sharing
littlemrsmosher says
these look really yummy!! Are they fairly sweet with all the sugar plus the caramels? I’m thinking of doing them and cutting back on that…
Andrea says
actually no — I put the full amount of sugar and caramel in these bars and they don’t taste overly sweet to me.
jimena says
love your blog! been reading for months!
first time leaving a comment…Nora is so cute!
I no nothing about cooking or baking, do you freeze them already baked?
Im pretty sure my boys would love them, and they would be great for school lunches!
thanks for you blog all the way from Peru.
Andrea says
yup, always freeze after you bake — you can even eat them frozen then. Here are a bunch of other “freezer cooking” tips.
Sarah Joy says
These look SOOO good! I’m going to need to add caramels to my shopping list! What a great idea to have a baking day to stock the freezer! I never think of doing that, but I always stress out when I don’t have anything to take to a get together. Thanks for the good idea!
Kim says
Can you omit the caramel do you think? I love it but some in my family don’t. Thanks, glad I stumbled on your blog at $ saving Mom…
Andrea says
well — they definitely wouldn’t taste anywhere near the same if you omitted the caramel — but yes, I’m sure you could. They would basically just be like an oatmeal cookie then.
Donna English says
Yum these look wonderful!
Ivy Miller says
Andrea,
These look so great… I am wondering if you have the nutritional value info for the recipe or maybe some one know where I can input in the info to get it. There are certain things I have to watch the amounts on.
Love your blog…