Chewy Caramel Bars

 


Chewy Caramel Bars

While I was home visiting my family in PA, aside from visiting my sister, parents, grandparents and all other family, I had the opportunity to go through some things that had belonged to my Grandma Ethel. One of the prized things that I spent a lot of time sorting through, was her recipe file. Some of the recipes were old original copies that where written in my Grandma's perfect hand writing; some were stained from being present when she was baking. Others, were just clippings from a magazine that I assume she had saved for a later day.  I sat in the living room of my parent's house and went through each recipe one by one. It was a rainy day and as I was sorting my Dad was sitting there in his chair.  As I came across something I thought was interesting, I would share it with him.  He laughed at some of the recipes stating that my grandma would never have made that or that he never remembers eating some of the concoctions. Other recipes he definitely remembered and some he even seemed sentimental about. It was a nice afternoon spent with him. My dad is a man of few words but sometimes just the time spent together says everything; no words needed....

Everything Caramel is Good!

I made a batch of these to see how they turned out and to try my newly fixed oven. They were melt in your mouth amazing. I took them to work and they were gone fast!  I can not wait to make another batch to share with my family at OBX 2012.

 

The original recipe from Grandma Ethel

Chewy Caramel Bars

32 Caramels
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 cup flour
3/4 cup old fashion or quick oats, uncooked
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
6 oz milk chocolate chips

Melt caramels with milk in covered double boiler or heave saucepan over low heat. Combine dry ingredients; cut in the butter until mixture resembles course crumbs. Reserve 1 cup. Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom of greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the baked crust. Spread caramel mixture evenly over the chocolate chips; sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Continue baking for 20 minutes. Chill for 2 hours. Cut into squares. These are best eaten right out of the fridge. If you let them out at room temperature, they get a little sticky.

Great with a cup of milk. They are very rich.