These gooey, chocolatey, salted caramel-y bars are one of the happiest accidents I’ve ever had in the kitchen. They’re a variation on caramel cookie bars, using the classic Nestle Tollhouse cookie recipe with caramel sauce sandwiched in between.

The story—why oopsie?

This is not a pretty dessert, if you’re a foodie-Instagram-Gordon-Ramsay-esque eater. I tried a shortcut with a normally pretty (and pretty tasty) dessert, and it was a gooey mess. A delicious, gooey mess. I almost just cut my losses, but everyone LOVED this delicious, gooey mess. And I think you will, too.

You see, recently, we decided to host a barbecue with friends less than 48 hours before flying to Maui with a 9 month old. Oh, and I was making a mad dash to finish painting our kitchen cupboards so we could then move everything out of the master bedroom and have the floors redone while we were in Maui. Yeah, that was fun.

To add to the funness (I’m making that a word), I decided to bake two desserts for said barbecue. Why do I do this to myself? I wanted to make two desserts I know are great literally just so I could photograph them and post the recipes. But of course, I had to go and try something new with these bars. (Also, I ran out of time to photograph so I snapped some shots of the three leftover bars the next day while packing…)

We had a jar of Trader Joe’s caramel sauce that we needed to use before it expired. I’m pretty sure I bought it over a year ago for the ice cream bar at my husband’s surprise 30th birthday party. It was time to eat this caramel sauce already.

Speaking of caramel, how do you pronounce it? Car-mel? Car-a-mel?

I pronounce it car-a-mel, because I like the sound and it seems more correct and doesn’t sound like Carmel, the city. I get teased about it sometimes. I regret nothing.

Anyway, turns out jarred caramel sauce reacts VERY differently when baked than sauces made from condensed milk and soft caramels. There’s a whole science of cooking temperatures and viscosity and such, but basically my experiment did not go as planned.

But it worked out so well.

See, I overbaked these bars. Remember that mad dash to finish the kitchen? I checked the bars early (as I always do), put them back in the oven, then forgot to set a timer because I was putting cupboard doors back on. They got a teensy bit too dark.

But no one knew because I had to turn them upside down due to the puddle of caramel sauce I found underneath. And it made them a gooey new creation, kinda like a caramel cookie bar meets lava cake.

Thus, I dubbed them oopsie bars. Because, oops! I made something amazing on accident.

I think our friends liked them more than the original recipe (which is also to-die-for).

Tips for this dessert

Salting the caramel is optional, but recommended

I added some sea salt to the caramel layer, since I wasn’t using the salted caramel sauce I usually make. It for sure draws out the sweetness, but if you don’t like salted caramel, feel free to leave it out.

The cookie layer is…yep, Nestle Tollhouse

I use all kinds of cookie recipes. But when it comes to a classic chocolate chip cookie, few are as good as Nestle Tollhouse’s. I mean, if it’s Phoebe’s secret family recipe, it’s gotta be good, right?

I do make some changes to it in this recipe. I used all brown sugar because there’s no risk of cookies that don’t risk or hold their shape. Plus, it tastes so good. I also use extra vanilla, which is what I always do to basically any recipe ever. Also, I use salted butter, again a staple trick of mine, to bring out the salted caramel flavor. And I also doubled the chocolate chips, because chocolate chips. ‘Nuff said.

Line your pan and grease it!

Given that you’re intentionally letting caramel sauce ooze out the sides and under your dessert, you need that protective layer of foil for your pan and to help with the flipping. Otherwise, you may end up with a giant pizookie you’ll have to eat from the pan with a spoon (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing…).

Whipping the butter and sugar until fluffy really makes a difference

I’ve learned so much about sugar over the years and especially since starting this blog. I feel it’s my duty to know what I’m talking about before telling you to just do something. Maybe it’s the teacher in me.

Anyway, making sure your sugar is incorporated into the butter is key. It begins to dissolve the sugar, which actually helps the final product taste better. It also adds air, which for a long time in baking was essential to getting your cookie, cake, etc. to rise.

The bars will shrink while cooling

This is perfectly normal, but I thought I’d warn you. Be sure to use a standard pan as they rise up quite a bit during baking and will spill over in a shorter or cookie sheet style pan.