🧈😍🙌 Salted Caramel Buttery Crumb Bars feature a buttery shortbread base and an addicting crumb topping that I simply can’t get enough of! They’re such an easy one-bowl dessert!
Shortbread Caramel Bars with Crumb Topping
- These caramel bars are easy to make, and you probably have everything on hand to make them now. It’s such a simple ingredients list: butter, sugar, flour, a dash of vanilla, and caramel sauce.
- The crust and topping are the same mixture, which is a nice time saver. The crust is firm with some chewiness, and the crumbles on top add tons of awesome texture. As the bars bake, the caramel sauce intensifies in flavor, and it tastes richer, more buttery, and has a more intense caramel flavor in the finished bars than straight out of the jar.
- Sinking your teeth into all the layers and getting a taste of the caramel filling in the middle is the best. Soft, chewy, and gooey all in one bite.
Love caramel?
Try my caramel apple bars, caramel apple muffins, caramel apple sheet pan pancakes, and peanut butter caramel Twix bars, too!
Ingredients and Notes
To make the shortbread caramel bars with crumb topping, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Salted caramel sauce – You can use Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce or store-bought. Just don’t use thin, runny ice cream sundae sauce. Use a nice, thick sauce
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Shortbread Caramel Bars
You’ll never believe how easy these salted caramel butter bars are to make! Before you begin, preheat the oven and prep a baking pan. Here’s an overview of the steps:
- Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the flour and vanilla and mix until just combined. I just mix by hand rather than drag out a stand mixer. The shortbread dough shouldn’t feel super sticky after you’ve mixed it together. If it seems sticky, add an extra tablespoon or two of flour to make it less so.
- Press one-third of the shortbread mixture into the prepared baking dish. Be sure to really pack down the dough. Bake the crust for 20 minutes.
- Once out of the oven, pour the salted caramel sauce over the crust. Crumble the remaining dough over the top of the caramel layer, then return the bars to the oven.
- Bake until the top is barely golden brown and there are subtle signs of caramel bubbling. It should still be pale in color and not at all golden.
- Once the crumble caramel bars come out of the oven, drizzle them with more salted caramel sauce, then let them cool completely at room temperature before slicing. I don’t recommend cooling in the refrigerator as it can dry out the chewy caramel. Enjoy as is or topped with a sprinkle of sea salt, fresh blueberries, or vanilla ice cream!
Salted Caramel Buttery Crumb Bars
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer Fitted with a Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, 2 sticks, softened
- ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- heaping 1/2 cup salted caramel sauce, homemade or storebought, or regular caramel sauce + more for drizzling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) combine the butter, sugars, and beat on medium-high speed until creamed, fluffy, and well combined, about 3 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the vanilla and beat on medium-high speed until well combined, about 1 minute.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the flour and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute. Dough shouldn’t be overly sticky. If yours is sticky (mine was because I baked on a humid day), add 1 to 2 tablespoons flour, or as needed, until dough comes together without feeling sticky, however don’t over-do it or dough could become crumbly.
- Turn out one-third of the mixture out into prepared pan (err on the side of going over one-third if you’re eyeballing it and unsure), pressing and hard-packing it with your fingers to form a smooth, even crust layer.
- Bake for 20 minutes. While crust bakes, refrigerate remaining two-thirds of dough.
- After 20 minutes, remove pan from oven, and evenly pour heaping half cup salted caramel over crust.
- Evenly crumble reserved dough over the top (it looks like a lot but some sinks down into the caramel layer while baking).
- Return pan to oven and bake for about 25 to 32 minutes, or until top is barely golden browned and there’s subtle signs of caramel bubbling.
- Remove pan from oven, lightly and evenly drizzle with salted caramel, and place pan on a wire rack to cool for at least two hours before slicing and serving.
Notes
- Bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Adapted from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Caramel Desserts:
Salted Caramel Maple Pecan Pie Bars — All the flavor of pecan pie minus the work – so easy!! Salted caramel makes everything better!
Carmelitas — For the serious caramel lover, these soft and chewy bars are dripping with caramel and stuffed with chocolate!
Salted Caramel and Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars – You’ll never want plain pecan pie again! Caramel and chocolate makes the bars taste amazing!
Caramel Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Gooey Bars — Keep the napkins handy for these soft, gooey bars dripping with the best caramel-peanut butter sauce!
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Crumble Bars — These caramel apple cheesecake bars feature a buttery crust that’s topped with cheesecake and spiced apples. After they’re done baking, the bars are drizzled with salted caramel sauce!
Salted Caramel Magic Bars — I have a thing for Magic Bars or Seven Layer Bars as they’re sometimes called. The salted caramel helps balance the sweetness of the other ingredients.
Vanilla Bean Caramel Blondies — These very soft, slightly chewy, buttery blondies are topped with the most amazing vanilla-spiked caramel glaze.
Salted Caramel Candied Pecan Carmelitas — Biting through the layers of the chewy oatmeal crust, the chocolate chips, the crunchy pecans, the salty-and-sweet caramel sauce that’s gooey and wonderful, and the crisp topping is pure heaven.
These look delicious. I haven’t had a crumb bar in a while and I would be all over this salted caramle version. I always get the salted caramel sauce from Trader Joe’s and in fact I have one in my fridge right now – it would be so good in these bars!
I always have a few jars on hand and that’s what I used for the drizzle!
omigoshhhh so buttery and salty sweet! loooove
These bars are a dream come true for me! Salted caramel and big pieces of crumble, dangerously delicious looking! Pinned.
Thanks for pinning :)
So, I have this bar cookie that’ a hit with my family. Literally. When I show up at any family holiday event they first ask if I baked anything and THEN they say Hi. I’m definitely adding this one to the bar cookie rotation- it’s totally going to be the Next Big Thing. I know it!
Well if you try them, LMK how they go over!
You had me at salted. And buttery. And crumb. And oh, the bars look delicious, too. Lovely lovely share, Averie, I’m totally drooling!
Thanks, Ala!
These look delicious! I love caramel and a good crumble, so this recipe sounds perfect.
Looks incredibly delicious! Can’t wait to try it:)
xwineandlipstick.blogspot.com
I love recipes where the crust and the crumb are the same mixture, it makes those three layer bars way less complicated! I did something similar with a double apple crisp recently. I love how huge those streusel chunks are, they’re certainly the best part of any streusel dessert hands down.
I love crust/crumble multi-taskers so much, too! And the huge streusel chunks are definitely the best :)
If there’s salted caramel, I’m in! This looks divine. I can almost taste the crumbles drizzled with (a whole lot of) salted caramel sauce ♥_♥
That’s it. I will be trying salted caramel after seeing these. Your photos are beautiful…so much so that I just about licked my computer screen. Is it bad that I want one of these for breakfast right now?
Caramel for breakfast? I’ve done it quite a bit :) And yes, you’ve gotta try salted caramel! The saltiness really brings out the sweetness and is just a perfect complement!
Someone please pinch me… these bars look amazing!
These are amazing Averie! Love the salted caramel! And if you didn’t miss chocolate on these, they must just be unreal – of course all your desserts are!
It’s rare I don’t miss chocolate but here, I honestly didn’t :)
Mmmmmmm!! can I have these for breakfast?! Pinned :)
Thanks for pinning and let’s have mimosas for breakfast instead :)
Seems so delicious. Thank you so much for sharing these bars. You helped me a lot. I was wondering what new sweet thing to try.
Just this morning I was looking at the Pumpkin Caramel sauce I impulse-bought at Trader Joe’s last week and thinking, “it looks so good, but what shall I do with it?” Question answered. First, though, I want to savor the cream cheese chocolate chip cookies I made from your killer recipe a few days ago. I can’t get over how incredible those are! Your recipes have taken over my to-bake list.
That’s funny about TJ’s and impulse buys…oh boy, I’m the queen of them :) I bought this chili for this recipe and talked about the same thing here! https://www.averiecooks.com/2014/10/easy-cheesy-chili-dip.html
Glad you’re savoring the cream cheese choc chip cookies! Those are some of my faves!
My husband is crazy about caramel, these are some great recipes to try for him!