If you’re looking for a simple, crowd-pleasing dessert, you’ll want to try this recipe for Carmelitas. It’s hard to beat this combination of caramel, chocolate, oats, and dark brown sugar! This Carmelitas dessert is delicious and simple to make. It’s one of my most requested recipes and one of my friends and family’s favorites.

Four Carmelitas (chocolate, caramel, oat bars) stacked on a bright blue plate.

They make a great after-school snack or dessert. This is one of my favorite desserts to take to any gathering. This dessert is sure to become one of your go-to recipes.

If you love oatmeal cookies, try my Oatmeal Craisin Cookies recipe. If you’re looking for more cookie recipes, check out my recipes for Molasses Spice Cookies and Valentine M&M Cookies. You can substitute any plain M&M’s in any color for this recipe, so they’re not just for Valentine’s Day.

What You’ll Love About Carmelitas Dessert

This carmelitas recipe lends itself well if you’re looking for an opportunity for cooking with kids. My kids help most often by unwrapping the caramels. They can also measure ingredients and flatten the oats, flour, butter, and sugar mixture into the baking pan.
This carmelitas dessert is easy to make.
Carmelitas freeze well which means you can make a double batch and freeze one. Or make them ahead to give at the holidays.
You can keep the ingredients on hand for any time you want to make a last-minute carmelita dessert for get-togethers. Of course, I’m also a big fan of buying something to contribute too.
They’re a great lunch box idea for kids because carmelitas dessert holds up well and tastes great!

Ingredients Needed to Make Carmelitas

Unsalted butter
All-purpose flour
Old-fashioned rolled oats
Baking soda
Salt
Dark brown sugar
Bittersweet chocolate chips
Store-bought chewy caramels like Kraft or Werthers
Milk

How to Make This Carmelitas Recipe

Four glass bowls filled with ingredients to make Carmelitas.

Unwrap the caramels (a great activity for kids of most ages). Mine always enjoy eating a few of the caramels while they unwrap them. Place in a microwave-safe bowl with 2-3 tablespoons of milk. Melt the butter and set aside. Mix together the oats, flour, dark brown sugar, salt, baking soda.

The bottom layer of oats, flour, and brown sugar for Carmelitas pressed thinly into a metal 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Add the melted butter to the oat, flour, and brown sugar mixture. Divide the mixture in half and press half into the bottom of a prepared 9 x 13 pan. Place in an oven preheated to 350 F and bake 8-10 minutes.

First layer of Carmelitas baked and ready for the layer of melted caramels, chocolate chips, and oatmeal crumble topping.

Melt the caramel in the microwave, stopping to stir about every 30 seconds until melted. Don’t let it bubble, or the caramel will get too hard during baking.

Melted caramels and chocolate chips over the first layer of baked oats, flour, brown sugar for Carmelitas.

Drizzle the melted caramel over the baked oat mixture. Then sprinkle the chocolate chips over the caramel.

A 9 x13 inch metal pan of Carmelitas ready to be cut.

Crumble the second half of the oat mixture evenly over the chocolate chips. Return the pan to the oven and bake 7-10 minutes or until the top begins to brown a bit.

Allow to cool for a couple of hours. Cut the caramelitas dessert into 24-36 pieces.

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Expert Tips From a Registered Dietitian for Stress-Free Sweets

We believe in offering sweets to children on a regular basis. Offering sweets is fun (because they taste great) and helps children learn to use their internal cues and self-regulate. Over the years, I’ve seen so many children from homes where sweets either weren’t allowed or kids were told sweets are bad or unhealthy—a treat one can only have sometimes. These diet culture messages are confusing to children and may make them feel bad for enjoying sweets.
If your child is very focused on sweets and asks for them often, practice offering sweets before they ask. Offering sweets with meals can also help neutralize them. The child decides what, how much, and if they eat what’s offered. The sweet is on a level playing field with the rest of the meal and the child gets to decide when they eat it. It’s not better or worse, and they don’t have to eat a certain food or finish their meal to get dessert. It’s just part of the meal.
Avoid using negative, diet culture-influenced language about sweets. Practice using neutral, non-diet language and refer to sweets by their names: cookies, cake, candy.
Enjoy sweets with your kids. Modeling is so important. If your kids see you enjoying sweets, that helps send a message that enjoying sweets is part of a healthy relationship with food. If they rarely see you eat sweets, this sends a confusing message.

Expert Tips for Making This Carmelitas Recipe

The bottom layer of the oat mixture will seem very thin. That’s ok. It’s supposed to be that way.
When melting the caramel, avoid overheating it. Caramel that gets too hot will become rock-hard. When microwaving the caramel, heat at 30-second intervals and stir after each interval.
Allow the caramelitas to cool in the pan for at least 1 hour. Then put them (still in the baking pan) in the refrigerator for about an hour before cutting. You don’t have to put them in the refrigerator to cool, they’ll just need to cool longer at room temp to allow the caramel and chocolate to set.
If you’re taking carmelitas dessert to an event outdoors, know that the chocolate and caramel may get a little melty, which means your fingers may get a little messy when you’re eating the bars. But the caramelitas still taste amazing!
Carmelitas last for up to a week (if they don’t all get eaten before then) stored at room temperature in an airtight container.

Recipe FAQs

Can I freeze carmelitas?

Definitely! Make a double batch and freeze one for the next get-together or anytime you’re in the mood for a delicious dessert. You can cut them or leave the carmelitas dessert as one 9 x 13-inch block and cut it into squares later.

Wrap them in plastic wrap, then place them in a plastic Ziplock bag or wrap them in aluminum foil. Label with the name and the date on the outside so you can find them in the freezer later.

To thaw, simply remove them from the freezer and allow them to thaw on the counter.

Can I double this carmelitas recipe?

Yes, this recipe doubles well. Bake them in two 9 x 13-inch pans.

Can I use instant or quick-cooking oats to make this recipe?

It’s not recommended because you’ll lose the nice chewy texture the rolled oats give the bars.

Can I use different caramels or caramel sauce?

I typically use Kraft caramels, because they’re easier to find than the Werthers chewy caramels. But either brand works well for these carmelitas. I haven’t tried the recipe with caramel sauce, but I will and will report back to you.

My Family’s 4th of July Tradition

What are your July 4th traditions? Our 4th of July doesn’t have any food traditions (this is highly unusual for me because I love food traditions!). Though it does make me think of corn on the cob, fried chicken (or burgers and hot dogs on the grill), deviled eggs and watermelon.

If I was making a special meal for the 4th, I’d include some or all of these foods for sure! I’m guessing these were foods we had on the 4th of July when I was a kid. And for dessert, I’d likely make Carmelitas dessert.

We’ve been going to Chautauqua, NY for 10 of the past 11 years, and 9 of those years we’ve been there for the 4th of July. We’re there this year too! A big part of our tradition is the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra Pops Independence Day Celebration in the Amphitheater, which includes the audience popping paper bags in time to the cannon shots in the 1812 Overture!

Then, it’s just a short walk to the lake to watch the fireworks around Chautauqua Lake. When the girls were younger, they participated in the Children’s 4th of July Parade for all the Chautauqua Children’s School kids. Here’s a photo of Ellie in the Children’s School Parade back in 2012.