Salted Chocolate Caramel Bars start with a layer of chocolate shortbread, topped with a thick layer of homemade salted caramel, and finished off with toasted pecans.
These really good salted chocolate caramel bars come from Dorie Greenspan’s new cookbook, Cookies by Dorie. The chocolate shortbread is sweet but mild with a hint of salt then the creamy, sticky salted chocolate caramel is the perfect mess on top.
If you’ve never made caramel from scratch, it can be a bit intimidating, but it is actually really easy.
If you look around my kitchen, you’ll see many OXO products. I’ve been a fan for years. Measuring cups, mixing bowls, spatulas…basically everything.
OXO graciously sent me their new Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer to help me make these bars, which was really timely because I’ve been been in the market for a new hand mixer. It has a headlight, guys. How cool is that. I didn’t know my mixer needed a headlight until I got one.
They also sent their 2 qt and 3 qt baking dishes WITH LIDS. All baking dishes should have lids. They can also handle extreme temperature changes so you can take them from the freezer to oven, if need be.
A few years ago I started participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and first got acquainted with Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. This month, OXO will be donating $100 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer for each blog post dedicated to this campaign, up to their $100,000 commitment.
Need more caramel recipes? Try these:
Crockpot Salted Caramel Fudge
Brown Butter Chocolate Caramel Cookies
Caramel Apple Poke Cake
Autumn Caramel Apple Pecan Bundt Cake
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Salted Chocolate Caramel Bars
Ingredients
For the Shortbread
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temp
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
For the Caramel
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
- ½ cup heavy cream at room temp
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temp, cut into 3 pieces
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
- ½ cup pecans chopped & toasted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8 x 8 pan (or line one with parchment paper) and set aside.
To make the Shortbread
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and cocoa powder.
- To a large bowl, add the butter, sugar, and salt and mix on medium speed with a hand mixer until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients and beat until the dough comes together. Be patient with this step, it will take a few minutes.
- Pour into the prepared pan and press down evenly.
- Bake for 10 minutes, rotate the pan, then bake another 10-13 minutes or until the edges are slightly darker than the center.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely while you’re making the caramel.
To make the Caramel
- To a medium saucepan, add the sugar, water, and corn syrup and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Allow the mixture to bubble (brush down the sides of the pan with cold water with a silicone brush if there are splatters), swirling a couple times once the mixture turns a pale to medium amber color.
- Lower the heat then add the cream, then butter and salt. The caramel may roil.
- Take the pan off the heat and drop in the chopped chocolate, Stir with a silicone spatula to combine.
- Pour the hot caramel over the cooled shortbread then sprinkle with the toasted pecans. Allow to set at room temperature.
- Once cooled, cut into 21 bars.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying/pasting and/or screenshots of full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Content and photographs are copyright protected.
Thank you to OXO for providing me with the tools to make these bars!
Other bars you may like…
Some very awesome recipes.
Thanks, Peggy!