Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars

So before I delve into this posts recipe, I just gotta say, I love Geoffrey Zakarian. For those of you who don't know who he is, he's currently an Iron Chef on Iron Chef: America (which is also my current favorite show). I watched Battle: Mint on Saturday and oh my word was that a good battle. Not only am I a huge fan of Geoffrey Zakarian because of his food and extreme talent in a kitchen, I'm a fan because he's so stoic in the kitchen and he knows exactly how good he is. I was talking to my friend about this the other day and she's not a fan because I think he can come off as a huge jerk, but I'm a huge fan anyway. Also, his sous chef on Iron Chef is Alex Guarnaschelli who is also completely amazing. I think my dream in life (at this point anyway) is to learn everything about cooking from Geoffrey and Alex and be best friends with Paula Deen and Giada de Laurentiis. Also I love Marcus Samuelsson, Bobby Flay and Jamie Oliver. I could name so many more cooks and chefs I love just on Food Network but I'll start with those as this post will soon start to not be about cooking at all.
Okay so props for this recipe completely go to the blog Two Peas & Their Pod. I found this recipe a while back, maybe even through the Stumble Upon App on my iPhone and these are the best cookie bars you will ever have in your life guaranteed. Ever. I mean it. They are so good. Here's the link: http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/chocolate-chip-salted-caramel-cookie-bars/
I followed the recipe pretty much exactly with the exception of not using an 11x7 pan, mostly because I don't have one that is exactly those measurements. The one I used is close enough I think. Also, 12 tablespoons of butter is actually just 3/4 cup. You're welcome.

Action shot of combining the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. I must say that I adore my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. She and I are in a long-term committed relationship and I wouldn't know what I would do without her.

Costco size bag of Chipits. They're one of my husband's favorite snacks but I'm hoping this bag will still last me a while.

Giada de Laurantiis is the one who taught me to use the paddle attachment on my mixer instead of the whisk attachment. Maybe most of you use your paddle attachment already but I just started about a year ago as my whisk just wasn't doing the job for things like cookie dough etc. Then one day I watched "Giada at home" and she made cookie dough using her paddle attachment on her mixer and from then on, that's what I have used with my mixer.

For the caramel center I used an entire 340 gram bag of caramel candies and unwrapped them all individually. When I microwaved them I did exactly as the recipe said and set two minutes on my microwave and stirred it every 20 seconds.

After the two minutes was up this is what it looked like but it's hot enough that if you just keep stirring it once it's out of the microwave that it will turn out like.....

...this. Creamy, smooth caramel goodness.

Here's a shot of the caramel on top of the first cookie dough layer. I don't have sea salt but I do use kosher salt in everything so that's what I used here. I had made these before and though you definitely don't want these bars to be too salty, I thought I didn't use enough the first time to really bring out the flavor of the caramel and that contrast of caramel and salt is just divine so I used a little more this time.

Ready to go in the oven.

Finished product. The thing with these cookie bars is that you have to let them cool off COMPLETELY before you cut into them because of the caramel in the middle. It was very hard for my husband to be that patient! If the caramel hasn't had a chance to cool and set before you cut them you will have a hot mess on your hands. Literally. I made these for my best friend Whitney and her husband Ryan on Saturday and I made them in the morning and put them in my cool unfinished basement so that when they came over they would be completely cooled off.

 Amazingness in cookie bar form. I told my husband today that I can't make these very often because of how good they are they just disappear. I'm sure you can guess where they disappear too and no we don't let our cats eat human food.

Well two posts for today is enough I think, plus The Bachelorette is almost on and I must make it to the T.V. on time!

- A