Caramel Shortcake Bars
A blanket of sweet caramel takes our classic shortcake to a whole new level!
you're making mealtime meaningful.
It’s no secret that we love biscuits, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that shortcake is one of our favorite desserts. We fell in love with classic strawberry shortcake, of course, but when we tried this recipe for caramel shortcake bars, we knew we’d found a winner. These treats are so good that it’s hard to stop at just one.
We use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the dry ingredients for this recipe, but two butter knives work fine. Just make sure to start with cold butter and cut it down until it’s small and crumbly in order to get a nice flaky shortcake texture. This is the most time-consuming part of the recipe, but it’s so worth it. We usually pair the shortcake bars with store-bought caramel sauce to save time, but homemade works great, too. Try out our delicious caramel bars tonight for a sweet and satisfying after-dinner treat!
Caramel Shortcake Bars
Yield(s): Serves 9
45 minutes
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided; 2 cups for cake, 1/2 cup for topping
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar + 1 tablespoon, divided; 1 tablespoon for cake, 1/2 cup for topping
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, divided; 5 tablespoons for cake, 3 tablespoons for topping
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 ounces prepared caramel topping
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9" by 9" cake pan to prepare.
- Combine 2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Cut in 5 tablespoons butter until pea-sized crumbs are formed.
- Whisk together milk, vanilla and egg in a small bowl. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and stir until just combined. Spread batter in cake pan.
- Mix together reserved butter, 1/2 cup sugar, and flour to form crumbly topping. Sprinkle on top of batter and bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool on counter.
- Slice cake into squares. Cut square in half along the middle horizontally. Fill with caramel sauce and replace top. Pour more caramel sauce over top and enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Tastes Of Lizzy T