Knock You Naked Bars

Knock You Naked Bars are outrageously delicious cookie bars loaded with chocolate chips, gooey caramel, and creamy peanut butter that will absolutely blow your mind! These decadent dessert bars feature a soft chocolate chip cookie base and top with a luscious caramel-peanut butter center.

Love More Desserts Recipes? Try My Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies or this Peanut Butter Blossoms next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Rich, gooey, and utterly indulgent, these Knock You Naked Bars are a dessert lover’s dream. Layers of chewy chocolate, caramel, and buttery cookie dough melt together into one irresistible treat. Sweet, messy, and completely satisfying, they’re the kind of bars everyone will be begging you to make again.

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Ingredient List

Dry Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Cookie Base and Top:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Caramel Layer:

• 14 ounces soft caramels (unwrapped)
• 5 ounces evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter

Substitution Notes:

1. Caramels: Kraft bag from baking aisle. About 50 individually wrapped pieces that you’ll curse while unwrapping. I do it during my commute when my husband’s driving. He stopped asking why years ago. Sometimes during boring Zoom meetings on mute. Better than doodling.
2. Peanut butter: Whatever’s open. Crunchy gives you surprise texture bits. Creamy makes everything smooth. My jar’s usually half-gone with dried crusty stuff around the rim but works anyway.
3. Chocolate chips: Made these with milk chocolate once because my kids ate all the good ones. Turned out fine. Also done half dark half regular when I was pretending to be fancy. Nobody knew the difference.
4. Peanut allergies: Karen at work does sunflower butter for her kid. Says you can’t tell. My cousin uses almond butter. Both fine.

Why These Ingredients Work

Brown sugar’s the whole reason these don’t turn into hockey pucks after day one. Made them with only white sugar my first time because I forgot to buy brown. Next day they were hard enough to break a window. Threw out the whole pan. Brown sugar’s got molasses which keeps stuff moist and tastes deeper than regular sugar.

Room temp eggs or your butter turns into weird little cottage cheese lumps. Did that once with cold eggs straight from the fridge. Looked disgusting. Had to start over. Now I set eggs on the counter when I start getting other stuff ready.

Peanut butter thickens the caramel so it doesn’t run everywhere. Tried skipping it once when I forgot to buy it. Thought it’d be fine. Caramel soaked straight through the bottom layer and made everything soggy and weird. Husband ate it anyway but I knew it was wrong. Some mistakes you only make once.

Vanilla seems pointless but leave it out and everything tastes flat. Found that out making a double batch when I ran out halfway through. The pan without vanilla tasted like nothing. Use the cheap Aldi stuff. Works same as fancy.

Essential Tools and Equipment

• 9×13-inch pan – metal’s better but glass works if that’s what you got
• Parchment paper or just butter
• Big bowl for mixing
• Hand mixer or wooden spoon if you want an arm workout
• Smaller bowl for dry ingredients
• Metal bowl for melting caramel
• Regular pot for water
• Spatula
• Knife that’s actually sharp
• Pot holders because I always grab hot stuff without thinking

How To Make Knock You Naked Bars

Step 1: Prep Your Pan and Oven

Oven to 375°F. Learned the hard way this temp matters – tried 350 once and took forever, came out dense. Grease your pan for real. I use my fingers and butter because spray leaves a taste. Get the corners or you’ll be there ten minutes later with a knife scraping stuck bits and being mad.

Step 2: Mix Your Dry Ingredients

Flour, baking soda, salt in a bowl. Whisk it. Takes thirty seconds. People sift flour but I never do and mine work fine. My grandma sifted everything and I watched her make these same bars without sifting so there. Set the bowl somewhere you won’t knock it over.

Step 3: Cream the Butter and Sugars

Beat butter with both sugars and vanilla for three full minutes. Set a timer on your phone because you’ll stop early otherwise. Looks fluffy and lighter colored when it’s ready. This step’s boring but actually matters – you’re putting air in which changes the texture. Skip it and they’re dense. My grandma taught me this when I was eight.

Step 4: Add the Eggs

One egg. Mix it completely till there’s no yellow. Then the other egg. Mix that. Dump both in together and they don’t mix right, you get eggy spots. Voice of experience here.

Step 5: Combine Wet and Dry

Add flour stuff slowly. I do three dumps because putting it all in makes a flour cloud that gets on everything. Mix on low just till you stop seeing white streaks. Then stop immediately. Overmixing makes them tough. Learned that from ruining cookies in high school. Dump chocolate chips in and fold them with your spatula. I eat a handful here. Quality testing.

Step 6: First Bake

Split the dough in half by eyeballing. Doesn’t gotta be perfect. Press half into your pan with your hands. All the way to corners. I wet my hands so dough doesn’t stick to them. Bake 8-10 minutes. Should look pale blonde and set but definitely not done. If it’s golden you went too far.

Step 7: Make the Magic Caramel Layer

Your unwrapped caramels go in a metal bowl. Metal works better than glass for heat. Put bowl over a pot with maybe two inches of water simmering. Bowl shouldn’t touch the water. Add evaporated milk. Stir constantly for five-ish minutes. Nothing happens, nothing happens, then suddenly it all melts. No lumps or you messed up. Add peanut butter. Stir till it’s shiny and completely smooth. Any unmixed peanut butter means keep stirring.

Step 8: Layer and Dollop

Pull your pan out when timer goes. Pour hot caramel over the baked part. Spread it fast with a spoon because it starts setting. Now grab chunks of leftover dough – like walnut sized – and plop them randomly on the caramel. Don’t spread them. Don’t try making it look neat. Looks weird and wrong but that’s correct. They melt together while baking. First time I tried spreading the top smooth and it was a disaster. Caramel mixed into dough, made a mess, looked awful. Just plop and walk away.

Step 9: Final Bake

Back in the oven. Timer for 15 but check it then. Might need 20. My oven’s old and slow so I always need full 20. Top should be light golden. Not dark. Edges look done and pull away from the pan a little bit.

Step 10: Cool Completely

Out of the oven onto a cooling rack or folded towel. Don’t touch it for an hour minimum. I make these after dinner and leave them till morning. Caramel has to cool and get firm. Cut them warm and it’s a melted puddle everywhere. Ruined two whole pans learning this. Now I make them before bed, cut them next morning with coffee. After room temp, whole pan goes in the fridge for 30 minutes at least. Overnight’s better. Cold caramel cuts clean. Warm caramel doesn’t.

You Must Know

Soft butter not melted: Poke it with your finger. Makes a dent but doesn’t go through. Shiny or greasy means too soft. Hard means wait longer. I set mine out while making breakfast and it’s ready by the time I want to bake.

Don’t skip that first bake: Tried it once to save time. Thought I’d press all the dough in and just bake once. Bottom went soggy from caramel soaking through. Threw the whole thing away. Husband was actually mad I wasted ingredients. That’s how bad it was.

Wait to cut them or suffer: Didn’t listen first time. Cut them maybe thirty minutes out of the oven. Caramel everywhere. On my shirt. Counter. Knife. Floor. Bars fell apart. Kitchen looked like someone died. My husband walked in and just turned around and left. Learn from my stupidity.

Personal Secret: Leave them in the fridge overnight. Next morning cut them cold with a hot knife. Boil water in the kettle. Dip knife in hot water. Wipe it completely dry. One cut. Dip again. Wipe again. Next cut. Takes ten minutes for a whole pan but you get bakery-perfect squares. .

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

• Hot knife every single cut. Will die on this hill. Room temp knife drags caramel and makes ugly jagged edges. Hot knife goes through like butter.
• Don’t own a double boiler. Made these forty-something times. Bowl over barely simmering water works perfect. Just don’t let the bowl touch water or caramel can burn.
• Caramel getting thick and weird while you’re working? Back over heat for ten seconds. Loosens right up.
• Parchment paper hanging over two sides of the pan. After everything’s set, lift the whole thing out by the paper. Cut on your counter not in the pan. Changed my entire life when I figured this out three years in.
• Unwrap caramels during conference calls when muted. Very relaxing. Better than fidget spinners. Stack them in a bowl and you’re ready whenever.
• Wipe your knife between every cut. Even with hot water. Caramel builds up and makes the next cuts messier. Learned this watching my grandma.
• Make them before bed. Wake up and cut them with your coffee. Best system I’ve found.

Flavor Variations & Suggestions

Too much chocolate: One cup semi-sweet, half cup milk chocolate, half cup white chocolate. Looks fancy and impressive. Tastes like expensive candy.

Salt situation: Flaky sea salt sprinkled on the caramel before the top dough goes on. People lose their actual minds. Think you went to pastry school. Trader Joe’s has fancy salt for three bucks.

With nuts: Cup of chopped pecans in the dough. Dad only eats this version. Says original’s too sweet which is insane but whatever. I make his special.

Butterscotch swap: Butterscotch chips instead of chocolate. Different but good. Friend Linda makes these because her kid doesn’t like chocolate. What kind of child doesn’t like chocolate but that’s not my business.

Coconut almond fancy: Sister adds shredded coconut to dough and uses almond butter in the caramel. Calls them Almond Joy bars. Brings them everywhere. Very extra but tastes good.

Dark chocolate with coffee: All dark chocolate chips plus tablespoon of instant espresso powder in the dough. Made these for a dinner party once. Everyone thought I was fancy. I’m not.

Peanut butter cup loaded: Chop up peanut butter cups and add them with the chips. Completely excessive. Sometimes excessive is exactly right.

Nutella swirl: My friend Rebecca swirls Nutella into the caramel. Haven’t tried it but she swears by it.

Make-Ahead Options

Bake Sunday. Eat all week. That’s my life.

Way ahead: Make them Sunday during football. Cover with foil. Last till Thursday easy. Sometimes Friday if I hide them behind the vegetables in the fridge where my family never looks. Nobody in this house eats vegetables.

Dough first: Friday night make the cookie dough. Bowl with lid in the fridge. Saturday morning pull it out, let it sit 30 minutes so it’s not rock hard. Then press and bake. My move when people come over Saturday and I don’t want to rush around.

Freeze individual bars: Cut them up. Wrap every single one in plastic wrap tight. Big freezer bag. Freezer for two months minimum. Maybe three. Definitely eaten them at four months. Still fine. Thaw on counter 30 minutes. Microwave 15 seconds if you’re impatient like me.

Freeze whole uncut pan: Sometimes make two batches. One pan cut into bars for now. Second pan wrapped in plastic twice then foil once. Freezer it. Need dessert in a hurry? Thaw overnight in fridge. Cut next morning.

Take them places frozen: Wrap the pan, pack it frozen in a cooler, transport, arrives thawed and perfect. Done this for tailgates.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

• Half the dough each layer sounds wrong because top looks like too much. But it works. Use a scale if you’re worried – whole dough’s about 28 ounces so 14 each. I just eyeball it now because I’ve made these too many times.
• Caramel showing through the top is correct. Not a mistake. Looks homemade in the good way not the bad way. Friend Amy texted me panicking once because hers looked “wrong” with caramel showing. Told her that’s literally how they look. She didn’t believe me till she tasted them.
• Some ovens run hot. Mine runs cold. Know yours. Top browning too fast but middle’s still jiggly? Foil tent over the pan.
• Cut 24 big bars. That’s my size. Friend Amy does 36 small ones for parties because they’re rich. Her way makes sense for crowds. Mine makes sense for my family who treats these like food groups.
• Room temp tastes better than cold. Cookie softens and caramel gets a little gooey again. Sit out twenty minutes before eating.
• First time making these? Do it exactly like the recipe says. After that mess with flavors all you want. But learn the base first so you know what you’re changing.
• Write the date on the foil when you cover the pan. I never remember when I made things. Found a pan once in my fridge with no date. Ate one. Was fine. Probably five days old.

Serving Suggestions

Hand people a bar and a napkin. That’s it ninety percent of the time.

But sometimes:

Microwave one for exactly ten seconds. Vanilla ice cream on top. Do this when company’s coming and want them impressed. Kitchen smells incredible too.

Coffee with these is perfect. Bitter and sweet. I have one with morning coffee and call it breakfast. Has eggs and peanut butter so basically protein.

Brought these to every potluck and family thing for seven years. Nobody’s complained. People request them now. Got a text last month from someone asking if I’m coming to the church thing specifically because they wanted these bars.

Cut them tiny and put on a dessert platter with store cookies. Look way better than everything else.

Wrap individual ones in plastic and ribbon for gifts. Gave them to my mail carrier for Christmas. He told me I’m his favorite house on the route now.

How to Store Your Knock You Naked Bars

Counter: Tupperware or foil tight on the pan. Four days easy. Five if your family doesn’t find them. After that they dry out.

Fridge: Same container. Full week. Caramel gets harder when cold so pull them out twenty minutes before eating. Otherwise you’re biting into cold hard caramel which is bad for your teeth. Found that out.

Freezer: Each bar wrapped in plastic wrap. All of them in a big freezer bag. Squeeze the air out. Two months for sure. Three probably. Four definitely because I’ve done it. Thaw on counter 30 minutes. Microwave 20 seconds if frozen and you can’t wait.

Warm them up: Ten seconds microwave makes the caramel gooey again. Fifteen if they were frozen. Longer and chocolate chips melt everywhere and it’s a mess.

Don’t leave them uncovered: Did this once. Left the pan out overnight no cover. Top dried out and got hard. Always cover them.

In the car: They survive car rides fine. Made them for a two hour drive to my parents’ once. Arrived perfect.

Allergy Information

What’s in here: Wheat, dairy, eggs, peanuts, soy

Swaps:

• No peanuts: Sunflower butter’s easiest. Tastes basically the same. Make them for my nephew with this. He’s allergic. Can’t tell the difference. Almond butter works too but tastes more almond-y.
• No dairy: Friend says Earth Balance butter and Enjoy Life chocolate chips work. Caramel’s harder – need dairy-free caramels or make your own with coconut cream instead of evaporated milk. Sounds annoying but she does it. Says it works.
• No gluten: Cup-for-cup gluten-free flour. The kind that says 1:1 substitute. Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur. Should work but never done it so can’t promise anything.
• No eggs: Flax eggs maybe. 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed plus 6 tablespoons water. Sit five minutes till gooey. Use instead of eggs. Don’t actually know if this works for these bars. Worth trying if you gotta.
• Everything vegan: Vegan butter, vegan chips, vegan caramels, flax eggs. At that point it’s different food but do what you need.
• Nut-free totally: Sunflower butter and make sure your chocolate chips don’t say “made in facility with nuts.”

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

Why are they called “Knock You Naked Bars”?

Friend Janet came over for coffee in 2012. Made these that morning. She tried one and goes “oh my god these could knock you naked” with her mouth still full. Name stuck immediately. Better than other names people use for similar bars. Mom calls them “oh my goodness bars” because she thinks the real name’s inappropriate. She’s 68.

My caramel layer is too hard to cut through. What happened?

Too cold. Room temp for twenty minutes. Hot knife under hot water, wipe dry, cut. Caramel softens enough. Cutting straight from fridge with regular knife? Yeah it’s gonna be hard as cement.

The top didn’t cover all the caramel. Did I mess up?

No. That’s correct. Supposed to look like that. Dough spreads while baking but it’s not meant to be solid. You’ll see caramel through it. That’s the whole look. Homemade not factory. Made them the first time and called my grandma panicking about this. She laughed at me.

How do I know when they’re done?

Top’s light golden. Not dark. Shake the pan gently and nothing jiggles. Edges look set and pull away from pan sides a little. When you’re not sure, they’re probably done. Overbaking dries them out. Underbaking makes them fall apart. Sweet spot’s in between. You’ll learn it after making once.

Caramel soaked into the bottom. What happened?

Didn’t bake bottom layer long enough before adding caramel. Needs to be set and firm. Too soft and caramel soaks through. First bake needs full 8-10 minutes.

💬 Made these? Comment below and tell me if your family fought over them like mine does! Any variations you tried?