Caramello Bars

I got a phone call about a week ago wondering if I could make a dessert for homemaking ( I know they don't call it 'homemaking' any more) tonight. Sure, why not? The only catch is that it has to be from food storage. Ugh. I figured that would be a stretch for me, but I'm sure I could come up with something.

I thought about it for awhile, and then I started asking myself these questions- How much of the dessert has to be from food storage? And who's definition of food storage? Like take for instance my caramels- I always have loads of those ingredients on hand. Buckets of sugar. Pounds of butter. Gallons of Karo syrup. (For those of you who think I exaggerate, I currently have 11 1/2 gallons of Karo in my pantry.)

So I could make caramels, but that's more like a treat, and not so much a dessert. Again, we are back to definitions here. But then it hit me- my caramello bars! The crust is flour, oats, brown sugar, butter, salt, and baking soda. Then there's a caramel layer, which traditionally I melt down store-bought caramels, and add some evaporated milk to make them gooey-er. Oh, and chocolate chips. The only ingredient I don't keep around in mass quantities at all times were the caramels, but wait, wasn't I just saying how the ingredients for my caramels are an integral part of my food storage? So I made caramello bars, and I only had to go to the store for chocolate chips because embarrassingly enough, I was almost out.

I had never made it with my own caramel before, cause, well, I'm chicken. I like having concrete numbers, and when I start playing around, those numbers need to change and that scares me. For instance, to what temperature do I cook it to? When I make caramels, I cook it to 242, however, the caramel in the caramello bars needs to be gooey. So, 242 is too high. 234? 230? less? AND My recipe makes more than I need, how much do I pour on to the crust? Is there such a thing as too much? What do I do with the leftovers? It's too gooey to do anything with it.

Caramellos

75 Kraft caramels

2/3 cup evaporated milk

- or my caramel recipe-

2-3 cups chocolate chips

Crust-

3 cups flour

3 cups oats

2 1/4 cups brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/3 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups melted margarine.

(I don't own margarine anymore, I used butter today, and it did seem a little more crumbly to me than usual, but still tasted fine.)

Melt store bought caramels in milk in saucepan on low.

Mix crust ingredients together, melt 1/2 mixture (I usually do more than half) in pan. (one of those big cookie sheet type pans) Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees F. Pour caramel over crust. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Crumble rest of crust mixture over top. Bake 15 minutes more. Cool, cut into bars, store in tupperware.

-Notes-

I tried one today and I am worried I didn't put enough caramel in it, but I ate a corner piece so the pieces in the middle might be more caramely. I broke my cardinal rule of cooking today, and that is to never try to make something for the very first time when that something is going to be eaten by other people. What's the point of spending all that effort on the caramel if you can't taste it?!?

9/22- Two things, firstly, it probably wouldn't hurt to put in more caramel. Depends on how much you like caramel I guess. Secondly, baking it in the oven that second time I think set up the caramel a little more, it wasn't bad or rock hard or anything, just not as gooey as the original recipe with the Kraft caramels. So if you are going for a gooey center, you'd want to cook it (the caramel) to a lower temperature initially.