Caramel Peanut Butter Shortbread Bars

Shortbread, Caramel, Peanut Butter and Chocolate? All things I like coming together into one delicious treat. As a kid I alternated between selecting Caramel Twix and Peanut Butter Twix. I didn’t have a favorite since they were both so good. Now that I’m an adult who can make my own (elevated) Twix bars, I don’t have to choose between those two flavors. These Caramel Peanut Butter Shortbread Bars are everything I could have dreamed of as a Twix loving kid. I hope you will enjoy them too!

Disclaimer:

There may be typos and incomplete thoughts in this post. I made some of these to take to my daughter who is in school at UT Austin where they were shared and received positive reviews. I have been instructed to get the recipe up on this site ASAP! I’m going to forgo my usual weak attempts to maximize SEO etc., and just get to it.

Here’s What You Will Need:

I sincerely hope you keep a reasonably well stocked pantry. If so, you should be ready to go! Butter, flour, powdered sugar, kosher salt. Brown sugar, corn syrup, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla. Peanut butter and chocolate chips. If you want to add a bit of coconut or vegetable oil to the chocolate topping I would recommend that, but it didn’t make the photo.

Pro Tips:

• Use a metal baking pan. It works much better for evenly baking shortbread.
• When making the caramel, start with melting the butter and don’t add the sweetened condensed milk until the sugars are incorporated and the temperature is up. Once the sweetened condensed milk has been added it’s important to whisk constantly. Sweetened condensed milk has a tendency to scorch. Trust me, I’ve had to throw out more than one batch of this caramel when I got distracted. While constant stirring may not sound super fun, there is NO THERMOMETER required so bonus there.
• When making the peanut butter layer, use melted butter. Warm butter and peanut butter will pour over the caramel layer and will be much easier to spread. This allows for a true caramel layer and a peanut butter layer instead of accidentally blending them together.
• Speaking of peanut butter, use a creamy peanut butter. I like Skippy Natural because it has less sugar than some “regular” peanut butters. While I like a truly natural peanut butter for eating, it doesn’t blend as smoothly into treats as something like Skippy.
• Don’t rush the chocolate! Warm it a bit, stir, let it sit for 20-30 seconds, and then warm it more. Chocolate will continue to melt once it’s removed from the microwave so give it a chance. At best, over heating chocolate will cause it to look splotchy as it cools; at worst the chocolate will seize up and get grainy. Let’s try to keep these bars beautiful.
• More on chocolate. Mixing in a bit of oil will keep the chocolate from becoming too firm as it cools. There is nothing wrong with firm chocolate, but it won’t slice as nicely and may squish the peanut butter and caramel out when you try to cut it. If you are going for the firm chocolate I recommend taking a toothpick or table knife and drawing lines where you plan to cut while the chocolate is still warm. Once the chocolate is firm it should cut easily through the lines.

Side Note:

I recently made a batch of these and added chopped peanuts to the top which made for a nice texture contrast. If you are taking these bars somewhere to share, chopped peanuts on top is also a nice visual cue to let people know that this treat has nuts.

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Are you a fan of bar cookies? Some of my favorites are my German Chocolate Shortbread Brownies and my Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies