Carmelitas {Chocolate Chip Caramel Cookie Bars}

Did you know that today, May 15th is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day?

In honor of that, the past few years, I have shared some of my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes. 

Today, I wanted to share my very favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar recipe, called Carmelitas.....

They are loaded with oatmeal, brown sugar, caramel & lots of chocolate chips.

Here is what you need:

For the Crust:

2 cups flour

2 cups Quaker oats

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter, melted

For the Topping:

1 package chocolate chips (I like milk chocolate, you can use semi sweet)

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I use pecans)

1 cup caramel topping

Add oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, baking soda & salt  in a bowl.

Pour in the 1 cup (2 sticks) of melted butter:

Stir until all the ingredients are coated & mixed together:

Press 3/4 of the mixture into the bottom of a 9X13 pan:


Luke likes to help me make these. One of his rescue bots guys was checking out our work :)

Bake the crust at 350 for 7-8 minutes & remove from oven. The crust should be light brown:

While the crust is baking, get your topping ingredients ready:

Sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts:

Drizzle about 1 cup of caramel over chocolate chips and nuts:

Sprinkle with remaining crumbs of crust mixture.

Then, I drizzle more caramel over the top:

Bake 15-20 minutes at 350, until golden brown.

After you take these out of the oven, have them cool on the counter for a few minutes and then chill in a refrigerator for 2 hours.
 Then, cut into bars & serve!

Some of my friends have referred to these Carmelitas as "Chocolate Chip Caramel Crack Bars"

 They are SOOOO good and SOOO addicting!

* If you don't like pecans/nuts then you don't have to use them for this recipe, you can omit them*

 One reason I love making these is because they are delicious AND they are perfect to serve at parties or bring to an event!

I hope you love these as much as we do.

If you want to make other types of Chocolate Chips Cookies in honor of Chocolate Chip Cookie day , here are some of our favorites:

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies:

 Monster Cookies:

Chocolate Chip Snickers Cookies:  

 Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:

And, my very favorite cookie....Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

 Happy Monday & Happy Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!