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If you're looking for a decadent and delectable treat that's also easy to make, look no further. These Caramel Crunch Bars are hands down one of the best things I’ve ever baked! They're cookie bars with a kind of caramelized, brown sugar shortbread base laced with a shot of espresso and studded with bits of chocolate. The bars are then topped with a layer of even more chocolate and finished off with a generous sprinkling of toffee bits. Even though there isn’t any actual caramel in the recipe, the cookie base bakes up gooey, crunchy and chewy all at the same time, with a rich “caramel-y” flavor. The perfect fake out!

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These bars can also be used also make some awesome ice cream sandwiches. Any flavor of ice cream will do, but my personal fave is Haagen-Dazs coffee. Just soften the ice cream a little and spread it between two caramel crunch bars. Gently press them together and freeze until the ice cream is firm.

This recipe comes from my favorite baking book, Baking: From My Home To Yours, by Dorie Greenspan.

You're gonna love these!

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Caramel Crunch Bars (From Baking From My Home to Yours)

Ingredients:

For the base:

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder or finely ground instant coffee

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 sticks (8oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 ounces bittersweet or premium milk chocolate, finely chopped

For the topping:

6 ounces bittersweet or premium milk chocolate, finely chopped

3/4  cup toffee bits

Directions:

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly butter a 9x13 inch baking pan and line it with foil. Butter the foil and put the pan on a baking sheet.

2. To make the base: Whisk together the flour, coffee, salt and cinnamon. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the sugars and beat for another three minutes or until the mixture is light and creamy. Beat in the vanilla and turn off the mixer. Add all the dry ingredients, cover the stand mixer with a kitchen towel (so you and your kitchen don’t get showered in flour) and pulse the mixer on and off at low speed about 5 times. Then, turn the mixer to low and mix, uncovered, just until the dry ingredients are almost incorporated. Add the chopped chocolate and mix only until the dry ingredients disappear. If the chocolate isn’t evenly mixed, finish the job by hand with a spatula. You’ll have a very heavy, very sticky dough. Scrape the dough into the buttered pan and, with the spatula and your fingertips, press it into a thin, even layer.

3. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until the base is bubbly – so bubbly that you can almost hear it percolating – and puckery. It will look as though it is struggling to pull away from the side of the pan. Transfer the pan to a rack and turn off the oven.

4. To make the topping: Scatter the chocolate evenly over the top of the hot base and pop the pan back into the oven for 2 to 3 minutes, until the chocolate is soft.. Remove from oven and immediately spread chocolate over bars, using offset spatula or the back of a spoon. Sprinkle the toffee bits over the chocolate and press them down lightly with your fingertips. Place the baking pan on a rack to cool to room temperature.

5. If, by the time the bars are cool, the chocolate has not set, refrigerate them briefly to firm the chocolate. Carefully lift out of the pan, using foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. Trim the edges if they seem a bit thick. Cut about 36 bars, each about 2 inches by 1 inch, taking care not to cut through the foil.

Enjoy!