Chewy Peanut-Caramel Bars

These are what Snickers bars would be if they were turned into bar cookies. Nancy Baggett says these irresistible bars are runaway best sellers at school bake sales. Our recipe tester's daughter took some to her high school and instantly became "Miss Popularity." These are good cold from the refrigerator, good at room temperature, and good frozen (like when you try to keep them in the freezer for unexpected guests, but your family finds them and eats them anyway). Adapted from Baggett's "The All- American Dessert Book" (Hough- ton Mifflin, 2005).

Print Recipe

Cook Time 30

Servings bars

Ingredients

For the crust:
1¼ cups flour
2½ tablespoons sugar
Rounded ¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter cold and cut into chunks
5 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the topping:
1¼ cups tightly packed light brown sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
½ cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into chunks
⅛ teaspoon salt
3 cups chopped unsalted peanuts
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ cups 9 ounces semisweet chocolate morsels or mini-morsels

Instructions

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a 9-by-13-inch baking dish by lining it with aluminum foil and coating the foil with nonstick spray oil.
For the crust:
In a food processor, blend the flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the cream and vanilla extract and pulse just until the dough holds together, being careful not to overprocess. Press the dough firmly and evenly across the bottom of the baking dish and prick the crust all over with a fork. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until just tinged with brown all over and slightly darker at the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
For the topping:
In a heavy, medium saucepan over medium-high heat, add the brown sugar, corn syrup, cream, butter and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. Add 2½ cups of the peanuts. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2% minutes, adjusting the heat so the mixture boils briskly. Immediately remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Pour the hot topping over the crust, covering the entire surface as evenly as possible and smoothing it with a greased table knife, if necessary. Let cool for 20 minutes. Sprinkle the chocolate morsels on top and let stand for a few more minutes or until the chocolate is partially melted. Using a table knife, spread the melted chocolate over the topping. Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup peanuts on top.
Let cool completely before cutting into bars about 1½ by 2¼ inches.

Notes

The bars can be kept in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 10 days or frozen for 2 months. Bring to room temperature, if desired, before serving.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!