The other day one of my kids was eating a Twix bar and it took me back to my childhood. I was never a huge candy eater as a kid, but I do recall my mom buying a large box of Twix bars every once in a while.

I would eat the shortbread part first and then nibble my way through the caramel and chocolate. So. Good. I’ve wanted to experiment more with dessert recipes, and this one sure is a winner.

These Ooey Gooey Twix Bars are rich, gooey and taste so nostalgic. You can make these this weekend if you’re having some of your kids friends over, or if you’re looking for something to hand out to your neighbors. This recipe makes enough for a crowd! Store these in the fridge or the freezer as the caramel and chocolate will melt if left out for too long.

I used a 12 oz. jar of caramel topping for this recipe, but you can absolutely make your own caramel with butter, brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk and corn syrup. I might try that next time, but for now…they are just as tasty as the real thing!

One note: Make sure the shortbread is ice cold before adding the caramel and chocolate layers. Mine wasn’t cold enough so my caramel started to melt.

Add some sea salt on the top of the bars if you’re serving them to adults. My kids freak out when they see salt on chocolate, but we all know it’s sooo good that way.

Enjoy these Twix Bars and Happy Friday!

Ooey Gooey Twix Bars

PREP TIME: 20 minutes
BAKE TIME: 30 minutes
SERVES: A Crowd
CLEANUP: Easy
KID-FRIENDLY: YES

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup butter salted cold
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 12 oz. caramel topping (or you can make your own caramel)
• 3 cups milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon butter

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°
2. Line a baking dish with parchment paper
3. In a large mixing bowl (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer for this) combine cold butter, powdered sugar, flour, and vanilla until the mixture comes together. This dough will look crumbly and that’s okay!
4. Press the shortbread dough into the baking dish
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is very lightly golden, remove from oven and allow to cool completely in fridge or even the freezer
6. To melt the chocolate add chocolate chips or crumbled Baker’s chocolate in microwave safe bowl with 1 tablespoon of butter
7. Melt chocolate at 30 second intervals, stirring in between intervals to make sure the chocolate doesn’t burn. This should take about 1 minute 30 seconds total
8. To layer, pour caramel topping on cold shortbread and then layer with melted chocolate until smooth (the chocolate may clump a little and that’s okay… these don’t have to look prefect to taste good
9. Once layered, refrigerate until chocolate is set or you can freeze them
10. Take parchment paper out of baking dish and cut into desired sized bars, serve cold
11. Store these in an air tight container in the fridge for up to a week
12. Enjoy!