Open to Variations

 

I made this treat because it sounded yummy and just right for Christmas. Now I want to try it again because you can get creative with the flavor combination. The original recipe calls for a spice cake mix, but this would also work beautifully with a devil's food cake mix too.

Gingerbread-Caramel Bars

Ingredients:

1 pkg. (2-layer size) spice cake mix
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 egg
35 KRAFT caramels, unwrapped
1 can (5 oz) evaporated milk
1 pkg. (4 oz) Bakers White Chocolate, coarsely chopped, divided

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 13x9-inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides; spray with cooking spray. Beat cake mix, ginger, butter, and egg with mixer until blended. (Dough will be stiff.) Press 2/3 of the dough onto bottom of prepared pan.

Bake 10 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Meanwhile, microwave caramels and milk in microwaveable bowl on high 3 to 3 1/2 minutes, or until caramels are completely melted and sauce is well blended, stirring after each minute.

Drizzle caramel sauce over baked layer in pan. Reserve 2 tbsp. chopped chocolate; sprinkle remaining over caramel sauce. Crumble remaining gingerbread dough over dessert. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool completely.

Microwave reserved chocolate in microwaveable bowl on high 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until completely melted, stirring every 30 seconds; drizzle over dessert. Let stand until chocolate is firm. Use foil handles to lift dessert from pan before cutting into bars.

Recipe Notes: When cutting dessert bars, carefully wipe off the knife blade between cuts with a clean damp towel. This prevents the filling from building up on the blade, ensuring clean cuts that leave the edges of the cut bars intact.

Source: Kraft recipes. You can find it here.

Notes: As mentioned above, don't you think a Chocolate-Caramel Bars version (using a chocolate cake mix and minus the ginger...maybe with the white chocolate, or using milk chocolate, or perhaps more melted caramel drizzled on top, or skipping the chopped/melted chocolate altogether) would be fantastic too? These were quite yummy.

The only thing I have to say is that when I tried to drizzle the caramel sauce over the baked layer in the pan, most of the sauce went right underneath the already baked layer! I thought I had ruined them...but the batter/cake layer and the caramel sauce baked together into bars and all was well.