Chocolate Caramel Bars

Ahhhhh it's a sea of chocolate, caramel and pecans.....YUM-O!!! (as Rachel Ray would say) - :-)

Just wait, it only gets better.....another layer of chocolate melts into all the yumminess of the first layer of chocolate, caramel and pecans.

 It's all baked together to make a happy ooey-gooey delight. 

 Below this picture almost looks like a puffy layer of "chocolate clouds" nestled against all the delicious yumminess of chocolate, caramel and pecans......H-E-A-V-E-N.  Heaven.  Pure heaven at that!

Chocolate Caramel Bars

(recipe was discovered on the blog Bake or Break Recipes)

Ingredients:

1 box German Chocolate cake mix

3/4 cup butter, melted

2/3 cup (from a 5 oz. can) evaporated milk, divided into 1/3 cup portions

1 (14 oz.) bag caramels (I used Brach's Milk Maid caramels)

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 baking pan.

2. In a large bowl combine cake mix, melted butter and 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Beat at medium speed  until smooth. 

3. Spread 1/2 the mixture in the prepared pan. Set aside the other 1/2.

4. Unwrap ALL of the caramels (it's a pain but some has got to do it....and believe me it is well worth all the work) and place in a heavy medium size sauce pan.  Add to the caramels the other 1/3 cup of evaporated milk. (Patiently) cook over medium-low heat stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the caramels are completely melted.

5. Pour caramel/evaporated milk mixture over chocolate layer in pan.

6. Sprinkle with chopped pecans and chocolate chips.

7. Drop remaining chocolate mixture over nuts, caramel and chocolate chips. *It will now look like the 2nd picture posted above.

8. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Cool in pan as long as you can handle doing so.  The cooler the bars are the easier they are to cut and remove from pan.

Enjoy!

Happy Chocolate Caramel Bar Baking!

~avril :-)

This recipe has been linked up to the blog Stop and Smell the Chocolates :-)