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
My friend pinned this revipe to Pinterest. Her cliet made these for her. My friend gave me one. I could not get this sweet buttery bit of heaven out of my head so I just made a batch. Diet will commence when these bars are gone.
hahaha! Love it!
These were amazingly delicious! I posted a review of them on my blog. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m coming late to the party here, but came across these and I’m making them as we speak. I have a question as others did, about the amount of crumble on top. Your picture shows the bars after putting the crumble on top and you can see caramel through the crumble. When they are done baking, you can see caramel through the crumble. There was so much crumble it was inches thick on top and I didn’t even use all of it. Is there supposed to be that much? I followed the recipe exactly and split it into thirds (I even weighed to make sure I had 1/3 for the bottom). 2/3 for the top? Really?
I want to make sure these come out great for the Mother/Son event I’m bringing them to tonight. Also, a whole tablespoon of coarse sea salt. I put not even a half tablespoon and I couldn’t imagine putting more.
thanks,
Lynn
I’m REALLY late to the party! But when I read your comment I had to reply, I hope you read this. I also was puzzled at the amount of left over dough. I think using it all would have completely buried the caramel layer. I didn’t want to put all that on top so I just put what I thought was good. (I think I have enough left over to make an 8X8 pan). I kept the remaining dough in the fridge for now. The amount of salt scared me too, I used maybe 1/2. Mine turned out amazing and I am very happy. Everyone loved these. They were best when completely cooled down.
What is the secret to making the dough crumble? It stuck to my fingers and was clumpy more than it was crumbly. I followed the directions exactly. Bottom line, my crumble topping looks like the bottom layer. They still taste great…just not as pretty as the posted pictures. Can you advise on what I’m missing? Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe!
I just break the dough into pieces to appear crumbly if that makes sense!
OK, these are in the oven as I type. Just to clarify… one third of the dough goes in the pan and 2/3 is reserved? Seemed like a lot of crumblies….even though 2/3 didn’t actually make it back onto the dessert. That is some good dough..and thanks for no eggs 😉
Yep, that’s correct! It is a a lot of crumbles, but it works..I promise 🙂
Hi…where does the 1/2 tsp of vanilla come into the recipe??
The extra 1/2 tsp is added to the caramel and cream once the caramel is melted…I just realized that step was omitted form the recipe. Thanks for the catch!
I just saw these on Instagram and I am dying!!!! These look so fantastic and I cannot wait to make them!
These were uhhh-mazing! Thanks for the recipe. Here is my version:
http://maddbakes.blogspot.com/2012/11/would-you-like-some-caramel-with-your.html
Yours look so great!!
I made these for our halloween party at work today, and they were gone in about 20 minutes. Thankfully I had a bar this morning to go with my coffee, and they are delicious! The recipe prep/process was also quite easy. I was a little worried that I might have not let the butter get soft enough but everything turned out just fine.
These were absolutely phenomenal. I made a batch and brought them to work, and started being asked how much I was selling them for. I now will be taking orders for my co-workers, and selling them through the holidays. Thank you for such an amazing recipe. Hope they are as good to you as they are to me!