These Salted Caramel Butter bars are one of my most requested recipes ever! The buttery cookie is filled with a creamy, salted caramel that is so rich and beyond delicious.
Salted Caramel Butter Bars are THE BEST Cookie Bar of ALL TIME!
I can’t begin to explain to you how much I love these Salted Caramel Butter Bars…I make them ALL THE TIME. They are one of my most requested desserts to bring to parties and there is never one left! And might I add, if you happen to be entering a cookie contest, these will guarantee you victory. Unequivocally.
The base is a buttery shortbread that comes together very easily and the filling is simply caramels, milk or cream, and a little salt! You can use pre-made caramels, or even a thick caramel sauce. I do recommend using caramels over sauce, because I think the texture is more chewy and hold up better than sauce, but so many of you who have made this recipe let me know that you have used caramel sauce and it’s worked out well!
How To Make Salted Caramel Butter Bars
It’s all a pretty easy process, just a few steps, honestly: you make dough, you divide dough, you bake some of the dough, you chill some of the dough…
Looking For More Caramel Recipes? Try These:
Salted Caramel Butter Bars
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 50
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 24 bars 1x
- Category: Cookie Bars
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Dessert
Description
Salted Caramel Butter Bars are a buttery shortbread filled with creamy salted caramel! A MUST MAKE!
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 2 cups salted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 4 cups all purpose flour
For the Filling:
- 14 ounces soft caramel candies (about 50 individual caramels), unwrapped
- 1/3 cup milk or cream
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- optional – 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°. Coat a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter, granulated sugar, and powdered sugar together on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix until combined. Turn the mixer to low and add in the flour, mixing until a soft dough forms.
- Press one-third of the dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Wrap the remaining dough in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until the edges are a pale golden brown. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool about 15 minutes.
To Make the Filling:
- While the bottom crust is baking and the remaining dough is chilling, make the caramel filling. Place the unwrapped caramels in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the milk or cream. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove from the microwave and stir until smooth. If caramels are not completely melted, microwave on high for 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval, until smooth.
- Once the caramel is melted add in your ½ teaspoon of vanilla and stir until combined.
- Pour the caramel filling over the cooled crust. If you are going to salt the caramel sprinkle it on caramel layer now.
- Remove the remaining chilled dough from the refrigerator and crumble it evenly over the caramel.
- Return the pan to the oven and bake until the filling is bubbly and the crumbled shortbread topping is firm and lightly golden, about 25 – 30 minutes.
- Let cool completely before cutting into squares.
Notes
- Store airtight for up to 5 days
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 423
- Sugar: 39.9 g
- Sodium: 515.9 mg
- Fat: 18.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 60.6 g
- Protein: 4.3 g
- Cholesterol: 43.6 mg
These were my favorite Christmas treat last year. Even after freezing and sitting on a cookie tray, they had great texture, flavor, and looked nice. Later, I took them to coffee at church and they were a hit, too. YUMMY!!
These had everything I wanted! Sweet and the salt!! OMG.. Deffinately not in a funk! Can’t wait to share! Perfect dessert! Just not with one arm in a cast, lol. But worth it.
I made these last night and OMG. They are amazing. Delicious. Heavenly. Thank you so much for the recipe! Even my hubby who isn’t much into desserts said they were amazing. A colleague at work said they were “better than sex”.
Also, I think the reason people are confused thinking you take the base out of the pan is because in your picture it’s hard to see that you used a glass baking pan. The crust is still in the pan people!
Ahh, that makes sense…For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why people were asking that!!
Why does the first crust layer have to be taken out of pan to cool and not left in pan ?
It doesn’t… you just let it cool in the pan!
Why take first layer out? Why not build layers in pan?
Why take the dough out to cool? Why not just build layers in pan? Thanks
It’s just the way I have always done it…also, it helps to cook them all the way through so the bake time isn’t longer on the tale end, resulting in hard caramel. If you try it the other way and it works I’d love to hear!
So I bake a lot – a LOT – and I’m fairly picky about desserts. I can honestly say I have never baked anything as delicious as these bars!! My husband, an avowed chocolate/peanut butter lover, said he’d rather eat one of these than any chocolate/PB dessert he’s ever had. There is no higher praise than that! Instead of using caramel candies, I made caramel, & I used fleur de sel. Seriously, seriously delicious! Thanks for posting 🙂
I think I made the bottom crust too thick – it is taking WAY too long to cook! I’ll have to make it thinner next time. Thanks so much for the recipe – caramel is my kryptonite! 🙂
let me know how they turn out 🙂 Even if the crust is thick they should be good 🙂
OMG!!!! I want one of these NOW!!! I’m definitely going to be making these bars. I love salty sweet snacks. I’ve never been a chocolate gal but carmel is right up my alley!
I made these with dark chocolate morsels… and it just upped the deliciousness factor. Thank you so much for the wonderful treats!!!