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Carmelitas on a brown plate with a few chocolate chips sprinkled around, and a blue plaid towel underneath the plate

Carmelitas

Carmelitas are a delicious cookie bar base topped with a layer of homemade caramel. Then milk chocolate chips sprinkled on top of the caramel, and finally topped again with more cookie dough. These layers are baked to perfection and go nicely with homemade vanilla ice cream.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Cooling Time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours
Servings: 24 servings
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Homemade Carmel Sauce- this makes more than you need for this recipe. Cook and only use 1 1/4 C. Save the rest.
  • 1 C butter(2 sticks)
  • 2 C brown sugar
  • 1 C light corn syrup I buy Karo
  • 1 can sweetened and condensed milk I like Eagle brand
  • 1 tsp vanilla
Carmelitas
  • 1 C butter, melted
  • 1 C brown sugar
  • 2 C Emma's all purpose flour blend or a blend you use
  • 3/4 tsp xanthan gym
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 C gluten free rolled oats you can also use quick oats
  • 1 1/4 C homemade caramel sauce, WARM if it is cold, you won't be able to spread it
  • 1 C milk chocolate chips I use Guittard

Equipment

  • 1 medium sauce pan
  • 1 large glass bowl
  • 1 9x13 glass dish
  • Measuring cups, spoons, wooden spoon, etc

Method
 

For the Caramel Sauce
  1. In a medium sauce pan on medium heat, melt butter until it is about half way melted.
  2. Add in brown sugar, and stir well.
  3. Add light corn syrup and still well. Then bring to a boil. This should take 7-10 minutes. Make sure you are stirring slowly. Once it comes to a RAPID boil, take out the spoon and let boil for 15 seconds. NO LONGER!
  4. Quickly stir in the can of sweetened and condensed milk. Stir very well to make sure it is well incorporated. Then bring the sauce back up to BARELY a boil. Then removed from heat.
  5. Add the vanilla and stir while gazing at the beautiful color of your caramel. Grab some apple slices, close your eyes, and picture what heaven might look like.
    Caramel Sauce finished
For the Carmelita bars:
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9x13 glass pan with butter and set aside.
  2. In a large glass bowl, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar until well combined.
  3. Stir in xanthan gum and baking soda. Add flour blend and oats and stir until everything is mixed well together.
  4. Press about 2/3 of the batter into the pan. It will be a thin layer, but make sure you have enough in an even layer to all the edges of the pan.
  5. Bake for 10-12 minutes. The dough will NOT be set. CAREFULLY pour the WARM caramel sauce over the cookie base layer. Smooth it carefully around the dish to create an even layer. It's okay if some of the dough comes up and mixes with the caramel sauce, but try your best not to pull up too much of the cookie base as you are spreading the caramel sauce.
  6. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly around the dish. Top with remaining dough sprinkled around.
  7. Return to oven and bake about 19-21 minutes or until edges are nicely browned. The middle will still look slightly uncooked, but not jiggly, it still needs to be set. It will continue to harden as the dessert cools, and as the caramel layer cools too.
  8. Let cool a MINIMUM of one hour. I prefer to cool this several hours before cutting into it. The caramel needs time to solidify again.
    Carmelitas cooling in 9x13 glass pan on a wire cooling rack.
  9. Cut into about 24 bars. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream

Notes

For the caramel sauce:
Store in a glass container or jar with a lid in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.  To re-heat, scoop some out into a microwave safe bowl.  This can be a little tricky because once it’s cooled, it is very sticky of course.  I usually use two metal spoons to spoon into a bowl.  Then depending on how much caramel you need to warm up, I recommend just 10-15 seconds, stir, and then see how much more time you need.
**to see pictures of each step of the caramel sauce, go to that post on my blog
For the Carmelitas:  They will keep at room temperature for 3-4 days.