Chocolate Caramel Shortbread Bars – Delicious and festive shortbread bars with creamy chocolate and soft chewy caramel! Perfect for your upcoming event!
My mother makes the best homemade candy. The absolute best.
I’m sorry, but this isn’t up for debate. She’s perfected it over the course of 40 years and refined her recipes at both sea-level and high altitudes. It’s stunningly delicious in every way and her three most famous candies (and my personal favorites) are English toffee, peanut brittle, and soft caramels.
Her soft caramels seriously stay so soft and chewy and gooey and delicious. They have a deep buttery flavor and they are RICH. It’s really quite crazy because they are solid in their individual little wax paper wrappers, but they completely melt in your mouth and explode with caramely flavor goodness.
Anyone who tastes them is blown away. Absolutely shocked at how amazing they are.
One of these days I’m going to convince her to open a candy shop.
But she’s a stubborn bugger.
These shortbread bars remind me of my mother. In fact I took over a bag just for her. One day I’ll learn to make my mother’s miracle caramel, but for now, these bars are pretty dang good!! I’m thinking of making them again for a family holiday party. Everyone will be thoroughly impressed 😉
Chocolate Caramel Shortbread Bars
Ingredients
- 2 ½ sticks butter - divided
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- ¾ cup sugar - divided
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- ½ cup milk chocolate chips
- ¼ cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and line an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl combine 1/4 cup sugar and 1 stick of butter and cream together until smooth. Add flour and mix. Stir in milk. Mixture will resemble crumbs. Press into the pre-lined pan and bake 20 minutes until golden. Remove and allow to cool .
- In a medium sauce pan melt 1 1/2 sticks of butter with 1/2 cup sugar. Add corn syrup and condensed milk. Bring to a boil and then decrease to simmer 6-8 minutes or until mixture achieves golden brown color, stirring constantly. (*For lower altitudes, simmer time may need to be reduced 2-3 minutes, watch carefully for coloring!) Pour caramel onto cooled shortbread. Allow to sit at room temperature 1-2 hours or until caramel has cooled and set.
- Melt milk chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl. Repeat in a separate bowl with white chocolate chips. Pour milk chocolate over caramel and spread evenly with a rubber spatula or the back of a spoon. Drizzle white chocolate over milk chocolate and swirl with spatula or spoon. Allow chocolate to cool completely before cutting into bars and serving. Store in airtight container.
My husband loved these! Saw your recipe on Pinterest. Thanks! Looking forward to checking out more
Thanks Julie! About the caramel, I do live at a high altitude so that can make a difference in things like candy and caramel. I would suggest reducing the time a few minutes if noticed separating in the caramelization process. I’m so glad you loved them!
making these now..can’t wait to taste them, but what is the secret to cutting them so cleanly?
Use a really sharp knife, cut down all the way through the shortbread, then slide the life out horizontally rather than pulling it upward. Clean the knife between cuts with a wet paper towel! Enjoy!! 🙂
thanks!!
Yum! These look even better than Twix bars! I love the addition of white chocolate to a familiar base :).
Just curious, how much is 1 stick of butter in cups? Up here in Canada a stick is 2 cups I’m not sure if it’s the same in the states so I don’t know if I should use 2 cups or 4?
Hi! Here in the states one stick is 1/2 cup. I’ll try to clarify that in my future recipes! Thanks Amanda!
These look just like I want to try! Could I add sea salt to make a salted caramel taste? If so, how would you suggest?
Salted caramel would be a great variation on this recipe! I would try a scant 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt when cooking the caramel. Or, you could sprinkle a few sea salt flakes right on top of the bars, just before the chocolate completely cools. Let me know how it turns out, I’d love to hear!