Chocolate Caramel Cookie Bars

Sometimes I love a good baking hack. This is one of them. All you need is a boxed cake mix and a few ingredients, and you're on your way to a dessert that's truly magical. Here's all you need for between 12-24 cookie bars (depending on how big you cut them):

Photo byHeidi

Ingredients:

• 50 soft caramels, unwrapped
• 1 box chocolate cake mix
• 1, 12 oz bag chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk, divided

First, in a medium saucepan, combine the unwrapped caramels with half of the evaporated milk. Melt, stirring occasionally, over medium to medium - low heat. Once melted and compeltely incorporated into a caramel sauce, remove from heat.

While caramels are melting, prepare a 9 x 13 glass baking pan by coating with non - stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine the chocolate cake mix, melted butter, and the remaining half of the evaporated milk. Mix to form a thick dough, then divide in half.

Press one half into the bottom of the prepared baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven and spread melted caramel sauce evenly over the top. Next, sprinkle chocolate chips over caramel sauce. Finally, crumble remaining dough and drop over all. (Crumbled dough pieces should not be so large that they will not cook thoroughly. Crumble pieces as evenly as possible)

Return to oven and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until set. Remove from oven and allow to cool and set fully before cutting.

Serve alone or with ice cream and Enjoy!