Description
Outrageously delicious Knock You Naked Bars combine buttery chocolate chip cookie dough with a gooey caramel and peanut butter filling. These layered dessert bars are easy to make, perfect for crowds, and guaranteed to disappear fast!
Ingredients
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:
- Butter: I don’t recommend substituting here – real butter gives the best flavor and texture
- Caramels: Use soft caramel candies like Kraft caramels (you’ll need about 50 individual candies)
- Peanut butter: Both creamy and crunchy work beautifully! For allergies, try almond butter or sunflower seed butter
- Chocolate chips: Feel free to use milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or a combination
Instructions
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Notes
- Clean knife cuts: Wipe your knife clean and warm it under hot water between each cut. This makes slicing through the caramel so much easier and gives you those picture-perfect bars!
- No double boiler? No problem! Just set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan with a couple inches of barely simmering water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water, and keep the heat low. You want to melt, not cook!
- Caramel too thick? If your caramel mixture starts to firm up while you’re assembling, just pop it back over the heat for 30 seconds to loosen it up again.
- Unwrapping hack: Unwrap your caramels while watching TV the night before. Store them in a small bowl so they’re ready to go when you need them. Your future self will thank you!
- Prevent sticking: Line your pan with parchment paper with overhang on two sides. This creates “handles” to lift the whole slab out of the pan before cutting – makes cleanup a breeze!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American