Description
Delicious Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Oat Cookie Bars featuring a homemade caramel layer sandwiched between chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough, topped with nuts and flaky sea salt. Perfect for a rich dessert or snack with a balance of sweet and salty flavors.
Ingredients
Scale
Homemade Salted Caramel
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar (150g)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp water (90g)
- 4 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, sliced
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp heavy cream, room temperature (100g)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Hefty pinch of kosher salt
- 7 tbsp all purpose flour (60g)
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- 1 cup quick oats (95g)
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour (165g)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (110g)
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed (210g)
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (85g)
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips (130g)
- 3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, finely chopped (95g)
For Finishing
- Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Prepare Caramel Ingredients: Gather all caramel ingredients to add while hot. Ensure the heavy cream is at room temperature to prevent caramel from seizing.
- Cook Sugar Mixture: In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine water and sugar; stir gently to mix without splashing sugar on sides. Heat over medium, allowing sugar to dissolve without stirring, watch as it changes from clear to light golden to amber.
- Add Butter and Cream: When sugar is amber, remove from heat, whisk in butter. Slowly whisk in room-temperature heavy cream until smooth. Add vanilla and salt, return to medium heat and simmer for 2 minutes.
- Incorporate Flour: Remove from heat and whisk in flour until fully combined. Set caramel aside.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Pan: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line an 8×8 inch baking dish with parchment paper on all sides.
- Mix Dry Ingredients for Cookie Dough: In a medium bowl, whisk oats, flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Make Cookie Dough Base: In a large bowl, cream softened butter and dark brown sugar until smooth. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, mixing well.
- Combine Dry Ingredients: Add dry ingredients to wet mixture and stir until mostly combined. Fold in 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips just before fully mixed.
- Form Base Layer: Spread about two-thirds of the cookie dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over dough.
- Bake Base: Bake base layer for 8 minutes, then transfer leftover dough to refrigerator to chill.
- Add Chocolate Chips and Caramel: Remove base from oven, evenly layer dark chocolate chips on top. Pour caramel over chocolate chips, reheating caramel gently if too thick.
- Add Remaining Dough: Drop spoonfuls of leftover chilled cookie dough randomly on top of caramel layer.
- Bake Final Bars: Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly golden on top.
- Cool and Chill: Let bars cool at room temperature for 30 minutes, then chill in refrigerator for 1 hour to set.
- Finish and Serve: Use a knife to loosen bars from pan edges if needed. Lift out bars with parchment, sprinkle flaky sea salt over top, and slice into 16 bars.
Notes
- Use room temperature heavy cream to prevent caramel seizing; warm slightly if needed before adding.
- Line the baking dish with parchment on all sides for easy removal of bars.
- Ensure caramel is pourable before layering; gently reheat if it thickens too much while cooling.
- Chilling leftover cookie dough before adding helps create distinct blobs and texture contrast.
- Sprinkling flaky sea salt on top enhances the salted caramel flavor balance.
- Use chopped walnuts or pecans as preferred for nutty crunch; toasted nuts add extra flavor.
- Store bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 310 kcal
- Sugar: 24 g
- Sodium: 120 mg
- Fat: 18 g
- Saturated Fat: 9 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 7 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 35 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 4 g
- Cholesterol: 40 mg
