Carmelitas

Baking blonde strikes again! Here is another fabulous recipe from her blog. I made a few changes and cut the recipe in half. This was delicious and really easy to throw together. I highly recommend using unsweetened shredded coconut in place of oats. These were absolutely perfect! I would not change a thing about the way I prepared them.

Carmelitas
1 cup Unbleached Flour
1 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut (original recipe calls for oats)
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 T. margarine or butter, softened

1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping (I used hot caramel sauce)
1 1/2 tablespoons Unbleached Flour
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I omitted)
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350°F.
Grease 8x8-inch pan.
Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. In large bowl, combine all crust ingredients; mix at low speed until crumbly. Reserve half of crumb mixture for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture in bottom of greased pan.
Bake for 10 minutes or until light brown.

Meanwhile, in small bowl, combine caramel topping and 1 1/2 tablespoons flour; blend well. Remove partially baked crust from oven; sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts. Drizzle evenly with caramel mixture; sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Return to oven; bake an additional 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.Cool 1 hour or until completely cooled. Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours or until filling is set. Cut into bars.