Recipe: Salted Chocolate Espresso Caramel Bars

A close up of the chocolaty goodness!

So in my last post, I told you how to make an easy smoked sea salt. What do you do with smoked sea salt you ask? Well aside from using it to flavor everyday dishes, you can use it on my Salted Chocolate Espresso Caramel Bars! They're relatively easy to make (with three easy steps!) and oh my goodness are they tasty!

Hubby rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Kid rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Mom rating: 5 out of 5 stars but only because I can't give it a 10!

Salted Chocolate Espresso Caramel Bars

Step one: The crust

In this step, you're going to make a graham cracker crust the same way you would for a cheesecake. You'll need:

12 graham crackers
1/4 cup of sugar
1 1/2 sticks melted butter

Preheat the oven to 350*. Put the graham crackers and the sugar in a food processor or blender and blend until you have fine crumbs. Mix the crumbs and the butter together in a bowl until clumps start to form and all the crumbs look coated. Line a 9" spring form pan with parchment or wax paper. Spray the paper and the sides of the pan with non-stick cooking spray. Spread the graham cracker mixture into the pan so that it's even all around. Bake the crust for 10-12 minutes or until it looks golden brown. Let it cool completely. (To make this happen faster, I set it in the fridge for about 20 minutes.)

Step two: The caramel

In this step it is HIGHLY recommended that you use a candy thermometer. I didn't have one so I used my meat thermometer. It didn't read high enough so my caramel's temperature got a little too high. Instead of having a creamy, melt in your mouth caramel, it ended up being more like toffee. Which was fine because it was crunchy and delicious but the idea is to have a smooth texture.

You'll need:

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 stick room temperature butter
1 tablespoon of water
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

In a medium saucepan, combine cream, butter, water and sugar and stir over medium heat until smooth. Bring to a boil and cook, without stirring, until the caramel reached 240*. It takes about 5-7 minutes but make sure to watch it so it doesn't turn to toffee (unless you want it to!) Pour the caramel over the cooled graham cracker crust.

Let it cool in the fridge for 20 minutes and then in the freezer until firm (about 10 more minutes).

Step three: The chocolate

In this step, we're going to make the chocolate espresso ganache. You'll need:

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons instant coffee
smoked sea salt

Place a glass bowl over a pot of hot water. Bring the water to a boil. Add the chocolate chips and cream and stir until they melt and combine. Mix in the instant coffee powder. Once completely mixed and smooth, pour over the cooled caramel. Sprinkle the smoked sea salt all over the chocolate so that the whole pan has a little bit of salt. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Bring out about 30 minutes before you want to serve and allow to come to room temperature. Using a slightly wet knife, cut around the edge of the pan to release the chocolate layer. Release the side of the springform pan and remove from the bottom. Cut into 1" by 1 1/2" bars.

The bars after removing the sides of the pan.

Store extras in an air-tight container.


These are SO yummy. My husband, daughter and friends who were lucky enough to try these were in awe. Even with the toffee textured caramel!