Ooey Gooey Caramel Chocolate Chunk Bars

As the Lady of the House and I mentioned, I baked some treats for Milwaukee's Cookies for Kids' Cancer Bake Sale on Saturday. Since I have a bit of a sweet tooth, I decided to make my favorite over-the-top dessert. (And I was being demure when I said I had "a bit" of a sweet tooth. I'm a dessert-aholic. It can't be helped.)

Anyway, enter Ooey Gooey Caramel Chocolate Chunk Bars. You'll think you've died and gone to heaven,  or at least some kind of very pleasant sugar coma, when you taste these.

Ooey Gooey Caramel Chocolate Chunk Bars
Source: Pillsbury

18.25 oz. package of yellow cake mix (I like to use Pillsbury Golden Butter Cake Mix.)
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
12 oz. bag chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
3 toffee chocolate bars (such as Heath Bars), chopped
1/2 cup butter
34 vanilla caramels (such as Kraft), unwrapped
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper and grease the parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, oil, and eggs.

Stir in chocolate chips, vanilla chips, and toffee bars. Press half the mixture into the pan and bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine butter, caramels, and sweetened condensed milk in a medium saucepan.

Cook over medium-low head until everything is melted and smooth, stirring occasionally. Slowly pour the mixture over the partially baked crust.

Top with remaining cake mix. (The remaining cake mix probably won't cover everything, so you'll see delicious bits of caramel peaking out. Mmmm...)

Return bars to oven. Bake an additional 25-30 minutes or until the top is set and the edges are deep golden brown. Cool for 20 minutes, then run a knife along any side of your pan that is not covered with parchment paper. (This will make it MUCH easier to remove the bars from the pan when they cool.) Cool for an additional 40 minutes, then refrigerate 1 hour. Cut bars into squares and serve at room temperature. Go back for seconds, thirds, fourths, etc.