Gingerbread Caramel Gooey Bars are so chewy and flavorful, it’s hard to stop eating them! These easy dessert bars are made with lots of brown sugar, molasses and sweetened condensed milk so they stay nice and soft.
If you like these gooey bars you should also try my Carrot Cake Gooey Bars.
How To Make Gingerbread Caramel Gooey Bars
My inspiration for these bars came from one of my favorite bloggers – Dorothy, from Crazy for Crust. When I saw her Pumpkin Toffee Gooey Bars I almost fell out of my chair. I knew I had to make a version myself and gingerbread seemed like the perfect way to go. I mean how do you make something gooey and delicious even gooier? Add molasses and caramels. Chewy city.
You start out with a yellow cake mix. Nice and easy. It quickly gets sticky with 3/4 a cup of molasses. After adding the molasses, dark brown sugar and spices, the delicious smell will have you wanting to eat the batter.
In the first round of these bars, I used caramel bits. I normally use the square caramels and cut them into pieces, but in the interest of saving time I gave the bits a shot.
The bits just didn’t quite do it. They are meant to hold their shape, like a chocolate chip, but I wanted gooey and melty. And you just couldn’t really taste them amongst the star power of the molasses and ginger.
So for round 2, I went back to my beloved square caramels. I melted them down most of the way, leaving some chunkiness, and added the melted caramels right into the sweetened condense milk. Once combined, it all looked like delicious caramel. When sandwiched between the gingerbread dough and baked, the caramel-y chunks were just as melty and gooey as I’d wanted. Perfect! The caramel totally compliments the gingerbread.
These Gooey Bars Are Delicious For Breakfast or Dessert
I had these bars for breakfast for about a week straight – they go perfect with my pumpkin coffee. 😉 Then I decided I needed to try and save the rest for my mom, who is a big gingerbread fan. Saving them was not an easy task. I wasn’t entirely sure if they’d stay soft, but after almost a week and a half they were still so moist and chewy. These bars would be perfect for sending in a care package to someone.
My Whole Family Loved These Easy Dessert Bars
My mom fell in love at first bite. She tried to hide them from my dad. Remember the cavernous caves of the pantry I told you about (see my Caramel Rolo Rice Krispie Treats post)? She considered using those for hiding, but was afraid she’d forget about them (it recently happened with something else).
But then later, while eating one, she had a weak moment and gave my dad a bite. His sweet tooth is as bad as mine. After that, she didn’t get another bar. He devoured them all. They were anxiously awaiting this recipe, so naturally it’s the first thing I’m sharing after Thanksgiving.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I know I did. It was so nice to get away for a few days and relax with friends and family. We were able to get together with some friends we hadn’t seem in a while, so that was really nice.
And now that Thanksgiving is officially over, we can get right into the Christmas spirit. We’ve already got the music going and the wreaths hung. Tonight we do the tree. I can’t wait. 🙂
Print
Gingerbread Caramel Gooey Bars
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 9-12 Bars 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Gingerbread Caramel Gooey Bars are so chewy and flavorful, it’s hard to stop eating them! These easy dessert bars are made with lots of brown sugar, molasses and sweetened condensed milk so they stay nice and soft.
Ingredients
- 15.25 oz yellow cake mix
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup molasses
- 1 stick butter (1/2 cup), softened
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 1/4 tsp ginger
- 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 5.5 oz caramels (about 20 caramels)
- 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Bar
- Calories: 385
- Sugar: 48.9 g
- Sodium: 318.4 mg
- Fat: 12.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 66.9 g
- Protein: 3.7 g
- Cholesterol: 40.1 mg
Modified from Crazy for Crust
Enjoy!
More Dessert Recipes You Might Like:
Peppermint Brownie Ice Cream Cake
Caramel Rolo Rice Krispie Treats
I love molasses and I love how these bars look soft and gooey, just what I want for the holidays!
They are definitely soft and gooey! Thanks Kari!
Oh yea, these wouldn’t last a week in my house! They look great, Lindsay! Pinned!
Thanks Julie! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Holy moley! YES!!!! Those look so insanely delicious! Love all that caramel in there!
Thanks Jocelyn! 🙂
I just made these and used an 8oz jar of Dulce de Leche instead of caramels because I’m too lazy to unwrap them! They tasted amazing! Thanks for such an awesome recipe – will be one of my Christmas faves from here on in!
Awesome! Thanks Erin – I’m so glad you love them as much as I do! 🙂
Amazing with the caramel goo in the middle… wow. Thanks for sharing on foodie friday.
Thanks Diane! Thanks for the party! 🙂
Wow, Lindsay, I these bars define “chewy gingerbread”! I love the combination of flavors. You know I am always on the look-out for good care package recipes. The stays chewy and delicious factor makes these bars a winner! Pinning for myself and also posting a link on the Soldiers Angels Bakers fb page. Packages to the military take forever to arrive!
Yes, definitely! I was thinking these would be great for mailing! Thanks so much for sharing, Wendy 🙂
These sound amazingly good! Perfect for the holidays.
Thanks so much Jen! 🙂
These bars are incredible Lindsay! Caramel and ginger together? Heaven! Pinned and just shared on Facebook!
Thanks Trish! 🙂 Thanks for sharing too!
That caramel layer in the middle looks amazing! thanks so much for linking this to Less Laundry, More Linking party!
Thanks Nancy! 🙂 Thanks for the party!
These look amazing! I love gooey caramel. I’m stopping by from Create It Thursday.
-Lauren @ imperfectandfabulous.blogspot.com
Thanks Lauren!
Are you even kidding me right now? I’m in love with these bars. Anything “gooey” and I’m ALL IN!
Thanks Katrina! 🙂
These wouldn’t last more than five minutes in my house! Between my parents, my sisters, and I we’d devour them immediately! The problem in my house is that hiding sweets is so common that we all know where to look to find them!
Haha, that’s funny! Still gotta try though right? 😉
OMG these look amazing. I am loving your blog and now that you’ve gotten my cookies, I can finally comment! These are on my to-bake list for sure.
Thanks so much Sara! Glad we got connected through the cookie swap. 🙂 The cookies are yummy – thank you!
The words “gooey” and “caramel” had me sold. These look so good, and I can just imagine how quickly they would be devoured by my housemates. Pinning!
Thanks Rachel! Thanks for the pin! 🙂
Lindsay these amazing. I’m sure they wouldn’t last long in my house. I love gooey butter anything especially growing up in St Louis, home of the Gooey Butter Cake. Nice creation and definitely gooey!
Thanks Vicki!
OMG. YES YES YES. These are fab! I am addicted to gingerbread right now. LOVE these!
Thanks Dorothy! Me too – I love gingerbread. Thanks for the inspiration! 🙂