Chocolate-Caramel Cookie Bars

I like being invited to dinner at people's houses, because usually you're asked to bring something and it's a great excuse to bake.  For years, my go-to recipes was a Lemon Tart, but after attending a party a couple of months ago where someone made the Chocolate-Caramel Cookie Bars from the back page of the November issue of Martha Stewart Living, I have now adopted that recipe as my own.

It's incredibly easy.  You just take eighteen sticks of butter, five lbs. of light brown sugar, and some flour to make the cookie base.  Bake for thirty minutes, and while it's baking you take a bag of sugar, heat it up in water, add another twenty-two sticks of butter and some heavy cream, and boil that up and pour it over a bowl full of chocolate.  Mix, let it sit, and then pour the whole thing over the cookie part, and refrigerate overnight.  And it ends up looking something like this if you're lucky:*

That's salt on the top.  LOVE that salt-chocolate combo.

*That is, unless your hostesses accidentally leave it on top of their warm stove when you bring it over, and the whole thing melts into a gloppy mess.  Oops, mishap!  Oh well, it was still good, though not pretty.

**Product plug**: I love my baking pan that comes with it's own lid.  It makes it so easy to transport your baked goods!

Sweets!

I recently developed/discovered a new weakness: novelty bakeware.

I've always loved to bake. When I was little, I had two Easy Bake ovens. But I've always been content making the usual cookies, tarts, cupcakes, brownies, etc. without feeling the need to be more creative. Until now.

Last Christmas, W-S sold an igloo cake pan. I was drawn to it every time I passed by it on the sale table, but I didn't get it. In retrospect, I wish I had coughed up the $14.99. How delightful to bake an igloo shaped cake for the holidays!


(penguins not included)

At the same time, they were selling Build-A-Bear cake pans. I thought these were a little weird, but I think Bridgie would have loved a princess bear cake for her birthday:


This Spring, I'm fascinated by the caterpillar cake pan, though I do think the deco kit colors are a little garish. I would prefer pastels.


And finally, I have been craving Oreos non-stop lately. I blame the cookie cake pan:


Yum! Doesn't that look good?

I recently ordered a heart-shaped cupcake pan, on sale. But I was just notified today that it's out of stock, so my order was canceled. Sad. :(

I think I've learned my lesson. When these pans go on sale, I'm totally snapping them up. I can't wait to show up at somebody's house carrying a giant Oreo cookie cake!