You’re gonna love me for these bars. Like be in love with me forever and name your children after me.
Sometimes things are just THAT good. Like Diet Dr. Pepper and Twizzlers. Just good. The end.
Obviously if you have been reading this blog for any length of time you know how I love my bars. AND you know how I love my salty/sweet. Sorry to be so predictable.
I won’t bore you with a lot of words today because it’s getting late and I haven’t made dinner, started laundry or painted my nails.
I have, however, checked Pinterest 3,457 times, gone to hell (Pilates class) and made a fun cocktail for my other site.
ANNND I still have to pack for a trip that I am going on tomorrow with some of the coolest girls in all the land, like her and her and her aaannd her. AND her and her and her and her! It’s all to celebrate our friend Georgia’s new book. So you see, I have lots of things I should be doing, which means I should stop talking now.
OK, here’s what you do…
Mix up the usual suspects in your stand mixer…butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla…
Mix in some newbies, crushed pretzels, oats and, of course, flour…
Press that yumminess into a jelly roll pan lined with foil. You need to save about a cup of the mix for later.
Now melt in a saucepan some caramels and a can of sweetened condensed milk. Yes, it’s true.
While it’s melting chop up some cashews.
When your caramel is melted pour that over your base, then sprinkle your cashews, some milk chips and the remainder of the oat mixture…
Then bake it up. I am loving my new Frigidaire Gallery Double Oven. The top and bottom ovens are the same size, so you aren’t limited to what you can make.
When they’re done you have to let them cool. But since you lined the pan, they are easy to remove and cut. This is really an awesome recipe for the holidays because this recipe makes a TON of bars! You can get up to 60, depending on the size you cut them!
[print_link]
Recipe: Salty Caramel Oat Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 cups finely crushed pretzels
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1 (11 oz) bag of caramel bits (if you can’t find the bits, use a 14 oz bag of wrapped caramels, minus 1/2 cup)
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
- 1 cup chopped cashews
- 1 tsp coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°
- Line a 15x10x1 inch pan with foil
- With your electric mixer beat butter and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla until incorporated.
- On low speed add in your pretzels and flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly mix in your oats.
- Set aside 1 cup of your batter.
- Press remaining batter into prepared pan.
- In medium saucepan combine your caramels and sweetened condensed milk over medium heat until caramels are melted and mixture is smooth.
- Pour caramel on oat batter. Sprinkle the cashews, chocolate chips and remaining oat batter on top.
- Sprinkle your coarse sea salt evenly over top.
- Bake for 20-2 minutes until top starts to golden.
- Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.
- When cool lift bars from pan with foil and cut.
Quick notes
makes 60 bars lightly adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookies magazine
Hi! I’m Shelly and I’m an addict. Of the buttercream sort. I started this site a few years ago as a way to justify my sugary, buttery obsession with desserts. It has worked out well for me so far, because as it turns out you guys all love sugary, buttery desserts too! It feels good to know you are not alone, doesn’t it? 
If I have another child I will indeed name her after you.
Le yum.
Wenderly recently posted..JOY
salty + sweet..and anything that has to do w/ caramel or bars or chocolate..I am all about it.
These look awesome!
Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga recently posted..Camera & Computer Backpack
Oh I love your oven, I would kill for that. Okay maybe not kill, but hurt someone real good;p And those bars look so good, I would probably only get like 20 out of them, you know, large bars are better.
sue @ Cakeballs, cookies and more recently posted..Gingerbread Men Cake Pops – Week 10 of the 12 weeks of cookies
you got it – our baby boy in the oven is named after you now
well, at least he’s named after these bars 
Heather (Heather’s Dish) recently posted..Simple Homemade Christmas Potpourri
Holy baked bars of wonderfulness! These look to.die.for. YUM!
Ashley @ Kitchen Meets Girl recently posted..Homemade Eggnog
Yes ma’am! Can I place an order?
Amy recently posted..Chocolate Cheesecake Truffles
I’ll take the entire tray and a spoon – - actually forget the spoon, I don’t want any extra dishes to do. Ill just take the tray and a couple napkins (you know, since im classy and all that good stuff)
Ok, I do adore you for these, but really I already did! Love:-)
Lauren at Keep It Sweet recently posted..Pretzel and Chocolate Chip Loaded Peanut Butter Cookies
I love bars too, especially the ones you make! You are one busy gal, Shelly!
Sue recently posted..Reindeer Nose Cookies
60 bars would be perfect for me right now
betty recently posted..Individual Pumpkin Cakes
Kind of awkward but…I was totally already going to name a child after you. Maybe now I’ll name two? Or one of my siblings’ future children?
Have fun on your trip!
Joanne recently posted..Recipe: Moroccan Butternut Squash and Chickpea Tagine with Quinoa
I just started to drool when looking at another blog’s salted caramel cookies… and now this?!!! I think the world is telling me that I need to make something with salted caramels! These bars look insane!
Rebecca recently posted..Cranberry, Fig + Pistachio Chutney
These look great! I love chocolate and caramel.
Oh. My. Goodness. Yes. Please. Yum. Must have these. I really must!
Andrea recently posted..40 Before I’m 40 (or not)
I am drooling over here! These look amazing!
Jen of My Tiny Oven recently posted..Favourite Things Friday Vol 14
OH MY GAWD!
I think I would be at risk of eating the WHOLE batch if I made this. Why does it look so good? Why? You tempt me! Far out. This is incredible.
Brittany recently posted..2 Year Blog Anniversary!
Will you marry me? I’m pretty sure these are exactly what I have been looking for all my life! YUM!
Jessica recently posted..Gift Guide for your Bitesize Budget & a Giveaway!
These bars rock my world!
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar recently posted..Christmas Baking Time – 2011 edition
It is like you made them just for me! No? Well, they look delicious!
Rachel @ Not Rachael Ray recently posted..Red Wine and Cherry Spritzer
Every day you are a new brand of awesome. P.S. If you make these for me I’ll do the dishes!
mrsblocko recently posted..Broccoli Quinoa and Honey Nut Chicken
I love this recipe.
joy recently posted..A Twist to Thanksgiving
These look really awesome. I, too, am a lover of sweet and salty. I also happen to be a lover of sweetened condensed milk.
You had me at helloi…
JenMarie recently posted..Owls and Tiling
These look so yummy, but for me, I have to omit the nuts. I know my grandkids will love these tho.
Thank U 4 sharing the recipe
ColleenB.
Um….yes please can have some!!!!! These look spectacularly (not sure if that’s even a word.) ooey , gooey and re sort of kinda yummy…and I like how they are heart healthy with the oats and all!!!
Mighty Morgan recently posted..Double Chocolate Cake Pops Dipped in White Chocolate
This is in reference to my above comment. Obviously I should re-read my comments before I post…sorry I’ve been away from the computer for a bit and it seems I forgot how to type, spell, etc
Mighty Morgan recently posted..Double Chocolate Cake Pops Dipped in White Chocolate
I am totally gonna rename my kids Awesome after you. Seriously that must be your real name because the stuff you come up with is well AWESOME!
Christina @ Ovenadventures recently posted..Oreo Snowballs
Oh my lordy!!! These look heavenly!!!
Erin @ Making Memories recently posted..Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Cookies
I love the sound of this recipe but … we don’t have the same type of pretzels here in Australia as you do in the US. Ours are small and hard … not soft and doughy like yours are over there. What can I use in place of the pretzels to give the same result?
With thanks, Bern
Wow. I might just have to whip up a batch of these myself.
Jennifer recently posted..Blueberry Jam Bars
These look INCREDIBLE! I would love some right now
. Great job!
Krissy @ Krissy’s Creations recently posted..Licorice Chocolate Cupcakes {Gluten-Free}
Mmmmm… I’ve just spent far too long going through your recipes looking at goodies! They all look delicious, and I have a list ready to try out. I can confidently say my husband will forever be grateful. My butt, which already feels bigger, not so much.
Chels recently posted..ALMOST DONE
I DO NOT APPRECIATE IDEAS LIKE THIS! Sheesh! It’ like a Take 5 bar meets chcolate chip cookies. CRAZYTOWN. AND I do not appreciate you boasting about your fancy-schmancy double oven. Do you by any chance have a direct line to Santa for one of those? Or my husband?
xo
kristi recently posted..Clear liquids and homemade dinner rolls
Oh my goodness, these look fabulous! They’d be perfect for a cookie exchange since they make such a big batch. YUM!
Erika – The Teenage Taste recently posted..Cranberry Salsa
besides the fact that you are super cool, it’s recipes like this that make me LOVE you…
sweetsugarbelle recently posted..Gingerbread Playdough
YUM! I wanted to let you know that I featured this on my “What I Bookmarked This Week” post – stop by and see!
danielle recently posted..What I Bookmarked This Week
You’re absolutely right….I DO love you for these bars!
Barbara recently posted..Marion Cunningham’s Christmas Bread
I definitely will love you for these; I already did love you, though:)
Raina recently posted..Peppermint Bark Cookies
Right now I’m all about bars! These are INCREDIBLE!!! I seriously can taste them in my mind right now!
Amazing!!! I wish I had some of these to eat right now!
These look awesome!! I’d probably just sub more pretzels for the cashews since I’m allergic, but yeah…these are definitely on my list to make!
I made them tonight, and while mine are not nearly as pretty they taste AMAZING! Thanks so much for the recipe! My husband and I went back for seconds. Okay, there could have been thirds involved…. And for the nice lady in Australia, these are not soft chewy pretzels that are used. It’s the hard crunchy kind. The ones you describe should be fine if you chop them up. And I can’t recommend the recipe enough! Yum!
These were fabulous!! I just HAD to make them after seeing them!!
sound amazing. Can’t wait to try this out
Whitney@somethingbroughtyouhere recently posted..What is a girl to do?
I made these last night! Yum! A bit more time consuming that my usual cookies/bars, but totally worth it. I would suggest either not spreading the caramel all the way to the edges, or using a bigger/heavier foil to line the pan. I have a cheapie brand of foil and it kept tearing as I tried to cut the bars. Minor complication. And note that it takes quite a while for these to cool. Thanks for the recipe!
Yum! Must try ASAP!!
I want to make these for Christmas. I was looking over the recipe and the : flour…. I see it is 1 1/2 ???? Cups? Tablespoons? Teaspoons?
Just wondering… before I rename my oldest child
HAHA! Yes, cups! I updated the recipe
I made these today! They’re still in the oven, but I cannot WAIT to try them…thank you for posting this!
Thanks… Now my daughter can’t figure out why I’m calling her “Shelly”
Strange looks… “Daddy!”
Take Care….
I’ve got a Cinna-Bon cinnamon roll killer.
Family begs me to make these.
Paul
oooh those sound great!
It doesn’t get any better than this!
Jenny Sanders recently posted..Is it easy to build an iPhone app?
these looked wonderful, so I made them and followed the recipe EXACTLY. I now have aluminum foil stuck on this entire pan, what a stinking lousy mess. thanks for nothing
Well, I honestly don’t know how foil would stick you your pan, unless the caramel seeped through? Possibly you didn’t cover your pan well enough? Because I have never heard of caramel penetrating foil
These are amazing!!! My family loved them. I plan to make more for valentine’s day. thank you
They are my husbands favorites too!
these look so very scrumptious.
Andrea (questfordelish) recently posted..Taco Salad
Beyond delish! Shared the recipe on my FB wall. Thank you
I can’t believe how good these are. Instead of cashews I used toasted walnuts. Wow, they are incredible! Thanks for posting