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Chocolate-Caramel Bars

For those of you still keeping tabs on BoB, don’t give up on me. I have not been able to bake and post with the frequency I’d like. I hope to remedy that as best I can.

Happy holidays, everyone!

These days, I’m all about quick and easy. The time of all-day baking sprees has passed. I take what baking time I can get. This recipe is a perfect example of making the most of very little time and few ingredients.

It all starts with a cake mix. While I’m not a huge proponent of cake mixes, I do use them occasionally. They can be great time savers. Of course, augmenting them can at least make you feel like you’re making something homemade.

The short list of ingredients yields quite an impressive sweet treat. They are rich and chewy and just plain delicious. And, if you’re concerned about your baking image, no one has to know about the cake mix.

Chocolate-Caramel Bars

Yield 24 2-inch bars
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes

These easy chocolate caramel bars have the perfect balance between gooey caramel, melty chocolate and German chocolate cake.

Chocolate-Caramel Bars

Ingredients

  • 14 ounces soft caramels
  • 5 ounces evaporated milk, divided
  • 1 package German chocolate cake mix
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 & 1/2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts, divided
  • 1 cup chocolate chips, divided

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9"x 13" baking pan.
  2. Place the caramels and 1/3 cup evaporated milk in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the caramels are melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside.
  3. Mix together cake mix, butter, and the remaining milk. Transfer half of the mixture to the prepared pan. Bake 10 minutes.
  4. Sprinkle 1 cup pecans and 1/2 cup chocolate chips over the partially baked crust. Pour caramel mixture on top, spreading it to the edges of the pan.
  5. Drop teaspoonfuls of the remaining cake mixture over the caramel. Press down gently into the caramel. Sprinkle with the remaining nuts and chocolate chips.
  6. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned and set. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Notes

Recipe slightly adapted from Kraft.

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    45 Comments on “Chocolate-Caramel Bars”

  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention Chocolate-Caramel Bars | Bake or Break -- Topsy.com

  2. You’ve got me swallowing hard after those pictures. YUM!

  3. I’m not generally a big fan of caramel, but I would so eat these up!

    Happy Holidays to you too!

  4. They look so good. My husband would love them. I guess I know what I’ll be making right after Christmas.

  5. I’m still following you! Always anxiously awaiting your next creation. Those do look good – and anything quick to make is a bonus this time of year.

  6. This is one of those old, famous recipes that I’ve always wanted to try because it’s so insanely popular. Do you really think the cake mix flavor might go undetected? I guess I’ll have to see for myself. Thanks for giving me an excuse. I hope you are having a great Christmas month, Jennifer.

  7. Yay, welcome back! Happy holidays to you too. Don’t worry, I for one still check up on your blog and am always very happy to see you post whenever you can. This recipe looks great; I have a few boxes of cake mix around too but never use them normally since I have a million other from-scratch recipes I want to try, but I have to use them somehow! Presumably it doesn’t really matter what flavor of cake mix you use, right? I have chocolate cake mix, but not German chocolate.

  8. It’s so good to be reading about another delicious BoB treat! These bars look utterly gorgeous 🙂

  9. Anna, I didn’t think there was an overwhelming cake mix taste. Most people probably wouldn’t realize that it was made with cake mix.

    DPLK, any flavor of cake mix would work. I’m sure you could come up with lots of yummy combinations.

  10. Looks like heaven in a bar! Have a very Merry Christmas!!

  11. OK, I’ve got these in the oven right now. Used a Swiss chocolate cake mix as Piggly Wiggly didn’t have German chocolate.

    I felt like I didn’t have enough batter. When I used half of it, it didn’t completely cover bottom of pan. Then I realized I was using a 10×13 instead of a 9×13. I spread it pretty thin and didn’t have quite half left for the top. Hopefully it will turn out OK.

    Taking these out to Carrie’s house this afternoon along with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. I was instructed to bring a sweet and I think this qualifies!

    (Of course, I was also instructed to bring deviled eggs. Looked in the fridge this morning and realized I only had 4 eggs. Oh well. 1 for 2?)

  12. Catherine, I hope they’re a hit. Tell your family Merry Christmas from me.

  13. Welcome back! Hope you had a great Christmas.

    These look great. I’m bookmarking it as I almost always do with the recipes you feature!

  14. I won’t give up on you! Glad to see you again! Happy New year!

  15. These have been around for years. I have made them for 30 years. We call them GOO GOO Bars.

  16. These are really good. I’ve been making this recipe for over 13 years (but I was told to call them “Knock You Nakeds”). Yummy!

  17. This is an old favorite! My mom usually makes this for my birthday parties! I miss it!

  18. These look great! The cake mix will be our secret; and, by the way, Happy New Year!

  19. My friend makes this at Christmas, but calls it “Turtle Cake.” It is so yummy my mouth waters just thinking of it.

  20. Hi! Nice blog. These look seriously delicious!

  21. Your blog is so full of things I want to eat and the photos are gorgeous. I’ve included you in a list of favourite blogs and passed on one of those food blog award thingummies. Feel free to ignore or do whatever with it. 🙂 Thanks!

  22. Every recipe I have tried was nothing short of amazing, and I thank you so much for your continued dedication to this wonderful blog! I imagine I am speaking for all of your other faithful followers when I say that we would love to see a top 10 list of your favorite recipes that you’ve posted. Thanks again for all your hard work, decadent recipes, and fabulous photography-reading one of your new posts never ceases to brighten my day!

  23. Thanks, everyone, for the compliments and encouragement! You continually make my day. 🙂

  24. Wow, these look so yummy! I can’t wait to try this recipe out…anything made with sweetened condensed milk can’t be bad. Thanks for the great recipe!

  25. There’s nothing more sinful than lying in bed staring at these. I feel better about my bad day already.

  26. Ooooh, these look delicious. I will have to try these out at my next get together. I’m sure they’ll be a hit.

  27. Yummm! Looks delicious! Love the blog!

  28. Oh my! This is what you call a perfect bar. It is soooo perfect, the qoute, “nothing is perfect” is now history.

  29. What an amazing bakin site-u have fantastic baked goodies and am still drooling(rather craving)over that fav chocochip cookie u have….fantastic…is it the crispy type and what would be grateful if u have any tips,besides baking ’em longer,that ya knows for a crunchy crispy cookie……..

  30. Awesome looking. Sounds yummy too. I would like to taste it now. But i often use to visit a famous Kosher Bakery in New York. High Quality and delicious taste.

  31. Regreso Espectacular. Con tu permiso copio la receta. Gracis.

  32. My mom has made these bars for YEARS and they have always been a bit hit. If I bring a pan into work, they’re gone before I know it!! So delicious.

  33. Hi, I am new. I love your blog. All the dessers look declicious. Are you a professional baker?

  34. Wow!!! That looks yummy!!! I think I might try making them into cake pops…hope they’re not too heavy for the stick. 🙂

    Thanks for the great recipe!!

  35. I made this on the weekend, and it was a big hit!

    as a variation I used
    1 1/3 cup SR flour
    1 cup 1 tablespoon brown sugar
    2 heaped tea spoons of cocoa powder

    Instead of the prepackage cake mix. I like to make thing from scratch so I didnt think it would matter too much if I just used the dry ingredients of a simple chocolate cake recipe.

    Willsurely make it again, thanks for the great recipe!

  36. wow…this reminds me of something my mom made when I was a kid. Anything with chocolate and caramel together and I am totally a fan! The pics are making me hungry!

  37. I ALWAYS look forward to seeing a new post on BOB, even if it once in a blue moon. 😉

    These bars are excellent and something I’d throw today for a small house party on the weekends!

  38. that looks like heven in bar form

  39. My family has made these for years! We call them Turtle Brownies because they have all the ingredients that chocolate turtles have.
    They are a favorite!

  40. This is the first recipe i made from you website. Oh Yum! Ate some warm and now the next day cooled. Delicious, like you own personal candy bar.
    Looking forward to making more treats.

  41. Pingback: Last Minute Cookie Panic: Top 10 Holiday Cookie Recipes

  42. I can’t wait to try this out!! Thanks!!

    (:

    Sincerely, Katie

  43. Hi. I made this recipe when you first blogged it and it was awesome! I was trying to print this recipe again since I couldnt find my earlier copy and for some reason the link is opening onto the same page. Can you please help? ?Thank you!

  44. Pingback: 10 Holiday Cookie Recipes You Should Try

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