Caramel Chocolate Peanut Bars are chewy, gooey comfort food. The buttery cookie base is topped with peanuts, chocolate, and caramel sauce for a treat you can really sink your teeth into.
Why you'll love this recipe
These luscious bars start with a cookie base that tastes like an oatmeal cookie. The cookie gets topped with crunchy chopped peanuts and chocolate with a gooey caramel sauce.
Caramel Chocolate Peanut Bars are amazingly melty, and gooey for a day. The bars continue to be deliciously ultra-chewy for two or three days.
For up to a week, the flavors and chew still entice and delight.
Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
Caramel sauce
- In a medium saucepan, combine sugar and corn syrup until boiling (about 3 minutes). Without stirring, allow the mixture to boil for about 5 minutes until deep amber (370° F on a candy thermometer).
- Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the butter. Gradually mix in the cream.
- Return the saucepan to the stove and, stirring constantly, boil on medium-high heat for about 1 ½ minutes (240°F on a candy thermometer).
- Pour the caramel sauce into a 2 cup measuring cup. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then mix in the vanilla.
Cookie base
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and melted butter.
- Press the dough evenly over the bottom of a parchment paper lined baking pan.
- Bake for 10 minutes then remove from the oven.
Completing the bars
- Sprinkle the chopped chocolate and peanuts over the base. Top with the prepared caramel sauce.
- Return to the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the caramel is bubbling.
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Storage
Stored at room temperature in an airtight container, in layers separated with wax paper, these bars satisfy a sweet tooth and sooth the soul for up to one week.
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Caramel Chocolate Peanut Bars
Ingredients
Caramel sauce
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup corn syrup
- 1 ½ tablespoon unsalted butter
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Cookie base
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup quick-cook oats
- ¾ cup brown sugar packed
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chopped into ½” pieces
- 1 cup peanuts I use lightly salted, coarsely chopped
Instructions
Caramel sauce
- In a medium saucepan, over medium-low heat, stir constantly to combine sugar and corn syrup until boiling (about 3 minutes). Without stirring, allow the mixture to boil for about 5 minutes until deep amber (370° F on a candy thermometer).
- Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the butter. Gradually mix in the cream.
- Return the saucepan to the stove and, stirring constantly, boil on medium-high heat for about 1 ½ minutes (240°F on a candy thermometer).
- Pour the caramel sauce into a 2 cup measuring cup. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then mix in the vanilla.
Cookie base
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 9” x 13” metal baking pan with parchment paper. Allow for some overhang for easy lifting after baking.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and melted butter.
- Press the dough evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan. The base will be thin. A sheet of wax paper over the dough helps to distribute.
- Bake for 10 minutes then remove from the oven.
Completing the bars
- Sprinkle the chopped chocolate and peanuts over the base. Top with the prepared caramel sauce.
- Return to the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the caramel is bubbling.
- Cool the chews completely in the pan.
- When ready to cut, lift out of the pan using the parchment overhang, and slice into bars on a cutting board.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 weeks.
Notes
- These chews should only be shipped in cool weather.
- Wrap two bars, bottoms together, in a strip of wax paper, then wrap in plastic wrap. Place a column of wrapped bundles in a freezer weight ziplock bag or airtight container.
Nutrition
First Published: January 24, 2016. Last Updated: June 8, 2023. Updated for additional information and better reader experience.
Miz Helen
Who could resist these amazing bars, yum!! Thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday today. Have a great day and come back soon!
Miz Helen
The Monday Box
Thank YOU, Miz Helen for hosting and for your kind words! I love chewy bars like these!
Frugal Hausfrau
Everything about these bars are amazing! Gorgeous pics, too - and they've really set off a craving! Thanks for sharing with us at Throwback Thursday!
Mollie
The Monday Box
Thanks, Mollie! Besides the flavor,I love the chewiness of these bars! Photos are something I am working hard to improve, so your compliment means a lot! Thank you.
Reeni
Thank you for doing all that experimenting so we can have these scrumptious bars! The method does sound odd. My favorite place this time of the year is in front of a fire too. Hopefully with a sweet treat in hand like this! They look quite delicious!
The Monday Box
Thanks, Reeni! The photo in the cookbook of the original bars looked so luscious that I had to figure out a way to make them taste delicious. I have no idea why the recipe called for putting in all that butter then draining it out, but was delighted to find that I could just leave it out in the first place and end up with "curl up in front of a fireplace" worthy bars! 🙂
Chris Scheuer
Oh Wendy, these look wonderful. I'm so happy you tweaked the recipe to perfection!
The Monday Box
Thanks, Chris! I was obsessed. The photo in the cookbook made it impossible to leave this recipe and walk away. I NEEDED a bite and that bite HAD to taste as good as it looked! 🙂
saltandserenity
Caramel anything is my weakness. These must be amazing with the salty peanuts.
So surprising to hear that the recipe as written wasn't perfect. The fact that Rose Levy Beranbaum can make mistakes makes me love her even more!
Even though I don't really love dogs, sometimes I wish I had one so i would be forced to go outside in the winter and walk. Then I would feel less guilty about eating these!
The Monday Box
Until recently, I didn't know that I had a weakness for caramel. Then I made my first batch of homemade caramel sauce. Whoa! Baking is like opening Pandoras Box. There are more and more things that I now have a weakness for. Too bad none of those things involves exercise!
Monica
We got over 2 feet of snow, Wendy. I was prepared and we ate (a lot!) but my oh my, these decadent bars would have hit the spot on Saturday & Sunday!! That texture and those chunks are driving me mad right now! : ) And I'm so glad you tweaked and made it work better. I know just what you mean about recipes not turning out and odd instructions and wondering if you're missing something...
The Monday Box
Wow, Monica! Over 2 feet of snow! I am glad you and your family were safe and cozy, but that is a lot of snow shoveling! Something sweet and slightly decadent is somehow so soothing in times of stress....or maybe that's just my emotional eating talking! 😉 Playing with and tweaking recipes is part of the fun when it works and part of the frustration when it doesn't! 🙂
Tricia @ Saving room for dessert
This is crazy weather and these would be the perfect treat after shoveling snow! I don't think they will last a week however 🙂 Have a lovely week!
The Monday Box
Thanks, Tricia! One day shoveling snow in three layers of down, the next day out comes the sun and all you need is mud boots and a windbreaker! Crazy weather indead! Caramel Bars have a calming effect. 😉
Ashley
haha our dog is the opposite - she HATES the snow / slush and therefore takes forever to do her "business" in it. Drives me mad. I don't want to stand out there in the cold for long! lol
These bars look outrageously good Wendy!
The Monday Box
Thanks, Ashley! I used to have a Shihtzu who refused to walk on snow. She would lie down with her feet in the air like a dead possum! I love my Scottish cold weather dog! 😉