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Dulce de Leche Bars

These Dulce de Leche Bars are wonderfully sweet, rich, buttery, and gooey!

stack of Dulce de Leche Bars on a white plate

Rich, Gooey Dulce de Leche Bars

Here we go again with bars. I know, I know. I just can’t seem to help it. In defense of bars, they’re easy to make. They make enough for a crowd. And, they’re usually pleasing to that crowd.

The flavor of these bars is a bit different than my usual bar recipes. Dulce de leche is definitely underused in my kitchen. I love its caramel-like, smooth flavor.

Much like those Blueberry Jam Bars from earlier this month, these bars are made mostly of a crumb crust and topping. It’s hard to go wrong with a buttery, sugary crumb crust. Sandwiched between two layers of that is a whole lot of dulce de leche goodness. A sprinkling of toffee bits tops it all off. All of that adds up to some kind of good.

Dulce de Leche Bars are so rich and sweet and gooey and absolutely delicious!

If you like a bit of salty with your sweet, then you might sprinkle a bit of kosher salt over the dulce de leche layer before baking. With or without that, these are truly delicious and hard to resist. While they would make great gifts or party food, you are likely to want to keep these all for yourself.

Dulce de Leche Bars

Yield 32 servings
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 44 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 9 minutes

These dulce de leche bars are easier to make than you think, and full of gooey, rich dulce de leche in every bite!

Dulce de Leche Bars

Ingredients

  • 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 & 1/2 cups quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 13.4 ounces dulce de leche
  • 1 cup toffee bits

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°.
  2. In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar and salt. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Reserve 1/4 of crumb mixture for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture into bottom of ungreased 9″x 13″ baking pan. Bake 10 minutes.
  3. In a small saucepan, heat dulce de leche over low heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently, to soften slightly.
  4. Spread dulce de leche over crust. Sprinkle evenly with toffee bits. Then, sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture.
  5. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes.
  6. Run a knife around sides of pan to loosen bars. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker.

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    24 Comments on “Dulce de Leche Bars”

  1. Just went to a party and both desserts were from B or B. Yay!!!

  2. oh my goodness, i LOVE dulce de leche. these must be amazing! xoxo

  3. These bars are lovely! Great recipe 🙂

  4. Your bringing Christmas early Santa 🙂

  5. I’m going to eat the screen.

  6. These look absolutely incredible – I love dulce de leche and would definitely add a sprinkle of salt for the ultimate salty sweet experience 🙂

  7. I made these last night & they disappeared! Thanks for sharing all of your delicious recipes.

  8. This sounds perfect. I will make these today for my sister who is a dulce the leche addict (and having a baby right now)! 🙂

  9. I made these this evening and can confirm that they are as scrumptious as they look in the photos! Absolutely delicious and I will definitely make them again. Thank you for sharing such a fantastic recipe

  10. Can you share the recipe for the Dulce de Leche..tnx! i love all your posted recipes. Godspeed!

  11. Can’t wait to try these as soon as I drop everything to go to the grocery store for some dulce de leche. Your recipes are superb and always right on. I can just taste these already. Mahalo for the recipe.

  12. What is Dulce de Leche? How is it packaged and where do I get it? I live in Indiana. I am old and must make these before I die!

  13. My family loves these. They last about a day here and they barely wait for them to cool. Also, I found chocolate toffee bits and use them instead of straight toffee. Could that be why they go so fast?

  14. In this time of Covid-19, my daughter made these for our Sunday Family Dinner this past Sunday. This is one of the only bar cookies I absolutely ADORE! Simply delicious! I’m not a big sweets person at all and I swear, tho it would make me sick as a dog, I could eat the entire tray! 
    Because of Covid-19 we couldn’t find toffee bits at the grocery store (went to 2, gave up – and who knew there’d be a run on toffee chips!), my daughter went to the gas station down the street to get 3 Heath bars as a substitute. Only 1 Heath bar left, so she also got a Score bar (also toffee) – last one as well, and to fill in the rest, a butterfinger bar (All 3 were about 2 oz. each). I’m sure this is delicious with the toffee bits, but with these three different candy bars crushed and used in place of the bits, the dessert was spectacular! Followed the rest of the recipe to a T. Desperate times call for desperate measures! You need to repost this for 2020! It’s THAT good! Thank you!

  15. can these be made in advance? if so, how many days and how should they be stored?

  16. These are absolutely delicious. But don’t forget to run knife around edge and cut into bars before they are cool. Otherwise you will need a chisel to get them out of pan. 

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