Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars (two peas & their pod blog)

ingredients:

2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips
10 ounces caramel candy squares, unwrapped
3 tablespoons heavy cream
Sea salt, for sprinkling over caramel and bars

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 2-quart baking pan (which is an 11 X 7 pan-I used a glass Pyrex dish) with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the melted butter and sugars together until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. In a large microwave safe bowl, combine the caramels and heavy cream. Microwave caramels on High until caramels are melted, stirring every 20 seconds. This will take about 2 minutes, depending on your microwave.

5. Divide the cookie dough in half. Press half of the cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the spatula. Pour hot caramel over the cookie dough. Sprinkle caramel with sea salt. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough over the caramel and spread dough with a spatula until the caramel is covered. Sprinkle the bars with additional sea salt.

6.Bake cookie bars for 30 minutes or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Cool bars on a wire rack to room temperature. Cut bars into squares and serve.

YIELD:  24 bars; 1 = 7 PP

Mama's Basic Shortbread Dough (linked from Facebook)

Ingredients

4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 lb butter (4 sticks)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
Preheat oven to 325F.
Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.
Using a mixer, cream butter, sugar, and vanilla to a smooth consistency.
Add flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time to butter mixture - use a low setting on your mixture - until all flour is mixed.
Drop by the spoon/scoopful onto a cookie sheet or baking stone.
Bake for 20 minutes at 325F.

To change things up, stir in any kind of chip, nut, or sprinkle you'd like to use. I mixed in one bag of mini chocolate chips for the batch in the picture. (YUM!) My mama likes to make them with pecans mixed in or with a Hersheys' Kiss pressed into the center. At Christmas time, the kiddos and I make some with colored jimmies mixed in and others we'll roll in sprinkles or jimmies and then bake. Use your imagination!