Saturday, August 13, 2011

Caramelitas


I was introduced to caramelitas when Josh and I were dating and I started joining his family for holidays and birthdays. Josh and his sister Alyssa share the same birthday and they would both get their choice of dessert - Josh's choice was always caramelitas.


Josh's gramma gave me the recipe for these after I had tried  to recreate them a few times unsuccessfully. Unfortunately it seems that I have misplaced the recipe...again...even though I found it recently and thought to myself, "must put this in a safe place so as not to lose it..." and of course, who knows where that "safe place" is, I sure don't.


I actually grabbed this recipe from cooks.com as the ingredients and instructions were very similar to what I remember Gram's recipe being. I made a very similar recipe almost a year ago now that I adapted to be more like the Caramelitas. This dough varies as it has eggs, whereas Gram's original recipe (and the one below) does not. Not sure which recipe we prefer...I'll have to try making the older recipe again!

Caramelitas
~ingredients~

2 c. flour
2 c. quick cooking rolled oats
1 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. butter, softened
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. chopped nuts (opt.)
12 oz. jar (1 c.) caramel ice cream topping
3 tbsp. flour 

~instructions~
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13X9 pan.
  2. Blend crust ingredients till crumbly and combined. Press a little more than half of the crust into the pan, reserving the remaining for the topping.
  3. Bake bottom layer for 10 min. 
  4. Remove from oven, sprinkle chocolate chips, chopped nuts (I used pecans) and drizzle caramel sauce over. You can make your own caramel sauce or melt down caramels w/ some condensed milk if you don't want to use a jarred sauce. I actually used leftover apple caramel dip! (Though this made for very gooey bars - not necessarily a bad thing.)
  5. Sprinkle remaining crust over the top and bake for 18-22 minutes.
  6. Cut into bars after cooling.

Also, I'm borrowing my sister's D90 camera, fancier flash and our 35mm lens, so I'm hoping for better quality and better looking pics until she makes me give it back :)

5 comments:

Biz said... Best Blogger Tips

Amy, this reminds me so much of a delicious thing my family makes at Christmas. Try out this recipe sometime when you're searching for your original ;)

1 Pkg. Pillsbury Moist Supreme Butter Recipe Yellow Cake Mix
1/3 Cup oil
2 Eggs
1 (12-oz.) pkg. (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Cup White Vanilla Chips
3 (1.4- oz.) chocolate- covered toffee candy bars, cut into pieces
1/2 cup butter
32 Vanilla Caramels, Unwrapped
1 (14-oz.) can sweetened and condensed milk (not evaporated)

1. Heat oven to 350* F. Grease a 13x9- inch pan. In large bowl,
combine cake mix, oil, and eggs; blend well. Flatten half of the
batter on bottom of greased pan. Then poor half of the chocolate
chips and half the white chocolate chips and half of the toffee bits
on top of the batter. Bake at 350* for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile in a medium saucepan, combine butter, caramels, and
sweetened condensed milk. Cook over medium heat until caramels are
melted and mixture is smooth, stirring occasionally. Slowly poor the
caramel mixture evenly over partially baked crust. Then poor rest of
chocolate chips, white chips, and toffee bits on top of the caramel.
Then spread the rest cake batter on top.
3. Bake an additional 25-30 minutes or until top is set and edges are
deep golden brown. Cool 20 minutes. Run knife around sides of pan to
loosen. Cool 40 minutes. Refrigerate 1 hour. Cut into bars. Store in
refrigerator.

We just use a bag of toffee bits and just kind of guesstimate how much to use.

amy grace said... Best Blogger Tips

@Biz Thanks! I've seen a recipe like that before, I will have to try it sometime! Looks great!

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips

This sounds pretty yummy we may need to try this some time thanks for sharing :)

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips
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Unknown said... Best Blogger Tips

Oh my gosh! Those look so amazing!