Diamond's Nutty Chocolate Caramel Bars

The other day, I was getting some water out of our water filter, and was thinking about how long it'd been since I'd posted a recipe on this blog.  I don't currently have a set schedule to post on here and basically just post whenever I'm feeling creative in the kitchen.  As I stood drinking my water, I noticed that next to the water filter was a bag of Diamond walnuts.  They had been in our freezer for the longest time and I finally had to take them out to make room for food that actually needs to be frozen, you know, like ice cream.  On the back of the bag I saw a couple recipes.  The bag itself was about half empty and so had been rolled down and clothes pinned (yep, no actual food bag clips for us) to ensure freshness.  Well, one of the recipes caught my eye (words like chocolate and caramel tend to stick out to me), and I unrolled the rest of the bag to see what this recipe was all about.  I'm normally not a fan of nuts in my desserts, but I decided to test this recipe out.  Yummy is all I have to say.

Begin by combining flour, oats, brown sugar, soda and salt.  I almost forgot to add the salt.  I thought this first mixture looked a bit like horse feed.  Don't worry, it gets better.

 Then you add melted butter to it.  Now it really looks like horse feed.

 That mixture gets pressed into an ungreased 9X13 pan and baked for 15 minutes.  While that was baking, I prepared the next ingredients: chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, a cup of the above crumb mixture and caramel sauce.

 Notice the color of the caramel sauce in the above picture.  Now look at it below.  No, that's not a camera or lighting problem.  You add 1/3 cup of flour to the caramel sauce.  My caramel sauce (which was really a butterscotch/caramel sauce), had been in the fridge, so I nuked it about 30 seconds to get it to a runnier consistency.

 When the crust comes out of the oven, you sprinkle the chocolate chips and the walnuts over it.

 Then the caramel sauce.

 Then the rest of the crumb mixture.

 Throw it back in the oven for 20-25 minutes and you get this.  I deem this a healthy dessert because 1) it's got oats in it and 2) it's got nuts in it.  So feel good about yourself when you eat it.  Have it for breakfast!  Have it for dinner!  Most of all, enjoy it!

Diamond's Nutty Chocolate Caramel Bars
(Makes 2 and 1/2 dozen bars)  <---Really, that depends on how big/small you cut the pieces.

2 and 1/3 c. flour, divided
2 c. old fashioned oats
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. melted butter
2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 and 1/2 c. Diamond walnuts, chopped
1 c. (12.25 oz. jar) caramel ice cream topping

Combine 2 cups flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.  Add butter; stir until all ingredients are moistened.  Reserve 1 cup crumb mixture; press remaining mixture into bottom of ungreased 9X13 inch baking pan.  Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove from oven; sprinkle with morsels and walnuts.  Combine caramel topping and remaining 1/3 cup flour in small bowl; drizzle over base.  Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.  Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes more or until browned.  Cool in pan.  Cut as big of pieces as you want.