TWD: Caramel Crunch Bars

These Caramel Crunch Bars are like the Clark Kent of baked goods. Mild in manner, mundane in appearance, but put them in a telephone booth...okay, the analogy kind of breaks down after awhile. But my point remains: these simple little bars are spectacular.
From the description and procedure, I was expecting these to be kind of like a bar cookie. Instead, they seemed almost like a candy, like that saltine toffee you make where you pour boiled butter and sugar over crackers and then bake it. They had that same crunch, and the same caramelized brown sugar and butter flavor. Only better, because they also had chocolate and cinnamon and toffee (oh my).
I made a half batch to save our waistlines, and half of me--the half ruled by my taste buds--regretted it, while the other half--that doesn't want to buy a new, larger wardrobe--was profoundly grateful. This was one of those baked goods that I could have easily eaten in a day. Break off a corner here or there, have some while making dinner...gone in a flash! So addicting.
These were awesome by themselves, but they were absolutely outrageous when used to make ice cream sandwiches. I paired them with a homemade salted butter caramel ice cream. The caramels blended perfectly, and the salt in the ice cream helped balance out the sweetness. The ice cream had chunks of salted butter toffee folded into it, to add more crunch and texture. [Stay tuned, ice cream recipe coming later this week in another post.]
Well played, Clark Kent Bars. Well played indeed.