I love having a handful of basic staples around that I can make dessert in a pinch if we end up with friends or family over. I’m not always the best at it, but that premise is how these delicious cookie bars were born. Four ingredients and thirty to forty minutes, and you have a yummy versatile dessert that will wow everyone!
I made these last week for our church Christmas potluck. This is a great recipe that you can make from scratch or not, and it’s great either way! All you need is sugar cookie dough, and your toppings of choice!
My OG experiment and recipe uses caramel sauce, chopped pecans, and toffee bits, but feel free to sub in or out different sauces, nuts, or toppings.
This is honestly easiest using premade sugar cookie dough, but from scratch works, also. If you use premade, start by lining up 2/3 of your cookie squares in an 8×8 baking dish sprayed with baking spray. I had the package that makes 24 cookies, so I lined up 16 in the dish; put 2/3 of your dough in the dish if you make it from scratch. Once they are lined up, smush them all together so they cover the bottom of the pan.
On top of the smushed cookie dough layer, generously add caramel sauce, chopped pecans, and toffee bits. Take the remaining 1/3 of the cookie dough and cover the top of the sauce and toppings layer. Drizzle more caramel over the top cookie dough layer.
Bake for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees. The top and edges will be golden brown and it will be a little bubbly on top.
If you cut it right away, it will be more like a cobbler, which is actually delicious with vanilla ice cream (trust me, haha!). If you let it sit for a few hours, they firm up into actual cookie bars.
These would be easy to swap around ingredients- chocolate chip cookie dough with chocolate sauce and pecans, or snickerdoodle cookie dough with butterscotch sauce, cinnamon bits, and almonds… The possibilities are endless! This really is a pretty simple dessert to keep on hand for emergencies because the toppings are shelf stable, and the cookie lasts for 2 months or so (apparently, according to Google, because Lord knows it’s never lasted a fraction that long in my refrigerator, haha!).
Caramel Toffee Pecan Bars
Ingredients
- 1 package sugar cookie dough
- caramel sauce
- toffee bits
- chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Grease an 8×8 baking dish with cooking spray.
- Place ⅔ of sugar cookie dough across the bottom of the baking dish and press together until it completely covers the bottom of the dish.
- Drizzle caramel sauce, toffee bits, and pecan pieces across the top of the cookie dough layer. Cover the toppings layer with the remaining ⅓ of the sugar cookie dough. Drizzle caramel sauce over top cookie layer.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until edges are brown and top is bubbly.
- Allow to cool for cookie bars to set before cutting, or serve by the spoonful while still warm.
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