Salted Caramel Shortbread Bars

Adapted from Makingmemorieswithyourkids.blogspot.com

One of my friends made these shortbread bars and brough them to our Girl's Night Out {watching The Bachelor}.  They were so yummy that I went out and bought the ingredients the very next day!  This is my kind of dessert!

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• 1 lb. salted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tbls. Vanilla
•  4 cups flour

For the filling:

·         1 bag (14 ounces) caramel candies, unwrapped

·         1/3 cup milk or cream

·         1/2 tsp. vanilla

·         1 Tbls. coarse Sea Salt (optional)

Directions:

·         Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  In a large mixer, beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add vanilla. Slowly add the flour and mix until smooth.

·         Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.  Spread about half of the crust dough in the pan to form the bottom crust.  Bake crust for about 20-25 minutes (until lightly golden brown.)

·         Remove from the oven and let cool for about 15 minutes. 

·         While bottom crust is cooling and the remaining dough is chilling, make with filling.  Place the unwrapped caramels in a microwave safe bowl. Add cream and vanilla. Cook on high for 1 minute. Stir. Continue to cook in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir until all the caramel is melted. 

·         Pour over crust layer. I didn't quite melt all of my caramel because I was a little impatient. I wanted to hurry up and bake these so I could eat them!  Sprinkle the caramel layer with Sea Salt if you chose to use it. 

·         Crumble the remaining dough over the caramel layer and bake for 25-30 minutes (until filling is bubbly and top layer is lightly golden brown). 

·         Now here's the hard part... let cool. I wanted to cut into them right away because they smelled so yummy.