German Chocolate Caramel Bars are an Amish cake mix treat baked with caramel, chocolate and coconut for the taste of German Chocolate cake.
German Chocolate Caramel Bars
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
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German Chocolate Caramel Bars is my recipe of the day with the blogging group Sunday Funday. We group up on Sundays to share recipes on a common topic. This week we are sharing recipes for Christmas Sweets & Treats.
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These bars combine the flavors of German chocolate cake including pecans and coconut with a gooey caramel filling. They’re both chewy and crunchy at the same time. They were also a hit at my husband’s office. Although the caveat with that is that they devour everything I send in. They are eating machines.
Did you know that German chocolate cake is named after Samuel German, who invented a dark baking chocolate for the Baker’s Chocolate Company back in the mid 1800’s? It has nothing to do with the country of Germany. The original cake recipe from the late 1950’s was called German’s chocolate cake after him, but the possessive got dropped somewhere along the way since.
However, these bars have their origins in Walnut Creek Ohio (Amish country) from a cookbook put out by the Der Dutchman restaurants. The author of the original recipe is Teresa Hochstetler. I made only a few minor tweaks to the recipe, but they still turned out great.
Sunday Funday
Christmas Sweets & Treats
- Christmas Tree Peanut Butter Blossoms from Amy’s Cooking Adventures
- German Chocolate Caramel Bars from Palatable Pastime
- Homemade Jujube Jelly Sweets from Sneha’s Recipe
- Maritozzi from Culinary Cam
- Two-minute Quick Fudge from Food Lust People Love
- Vegan Air Fryer Churros from Cook with Renu
German Chocolate Caramel Bars
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German Chocolate Caramel Bars
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German Chocolate Caramel Bars
Equipment
- 13x9x3" baking pan
Ingredients
- 15.25 ounce box German Chocolate cake mix
- 2/3 cup melted butter
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans
- 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
- 8 ounces sweetened condensed milk divided
- 14 ounces wrapped caramels unwrapped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Spray a 13x9x3-inch baking pan with baker's release spray.
- Stir together the cake mix, melted butter, pecans, and 3 ounces of the sweetened condensed milk.
- Pat out half of the the batter into the baking pan. Using a square of wax paper helps.
- Bake the dough for 6 minutes and remove from the oven.
- Sprinkle the chocolate chips and coconut over the base.
- Unwrap caramels and place in a saucepan with the rest of the condensed milk. Heat and stir until caramel is melted and smooth.
- Drizzle it over the chocolate and coconut- don't worry if it doesn't cover completely. Don't try spreading it (it will just make a mess).
- Spoon the rest of the batter on top, dropping by random teaspoonfuls.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes longer, or until the top is slightly dry.
- Cool in pan completely and refrigerate for an hour or so once cooled before cutting into squares.
Notes
Nutrition
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Sweetened condensed milk and caramels? I didn’t see those in the ingredient list. How much do you use?
Typo. Thanks for spotting it! All fixed.
When I was a kid I asked for either chocolate cake with chocolate icing or German chocolate cake for my birthday. Bars are so much easier!
Sometimes it can be hard to find the chocolate bars for the cake, too.
The original recipe was on the side of a Betty Crocker German Chocolate cake mix back in the late 1980s. I won best of show in 4-H.
Probably a different recipe. The recipe I sourced came from a cookbook dated 1971. But I imagine many similar recipes exists since the concept of transitioning from a cake to a bar cookie would be common.