I am a huge caramel fan, so when thinking up a recipe for caramel, I thought why not as a bar that you can carry around? You could walk fast while carrying it to get a little cardio in, and treat yourself with a bar at the end! So cut these however you see fit, depending on how many you want to share, if any. The nice thing is they aren’t too sweet, which can be a bummer when eating a dessert. and no need to pre-bake the dough which makes it even quicker to get into your mouth! Bake a batch up, see what you think

 

For dough:

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp kosher salt

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

 

Filling:

Half stick unsalted butter

½ cup brown sugar (I used smoked, regular or dark work just as well)

1 T light corn syrup

14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9×13 pan with parchment paper

Beat all ingredients for the dough (except flour) in a standing mixer on medium speed until fluffy 3-5 minutes

Add flour, scraping sides of mixer to incorporate, saving a ¼ cup of flour mixture to crumble on top of bars, and pat into bottom of baking dish. Chill while making filling

On medium heat in a heavy saucepan, bring all ingredients for filling to a simmer, whisking to make thicker every few minutes. Once dark in color, pour into a bowl to cool for 5 minutes

Pour caramel over chilled dough in pan, sprinkling the ¼ cup flour mixture over top the caramel. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until topping starts to bubble

Cool at room temp and cut, serving immediately for wrap in plastic wrap for up to three days. Can be frozen and brought to room temp if you want to eat them later on