Chocolate Carmelita Bars Recipe (Vegan!)

I’m going to share one of my favorite recipes with you today! It’s the recipe my friends request from me most often.

Everyone gets really excited when they hear carmelita bars are being made. We’re all kind of obsessed.

You think I’m kidding? I’ve had friends joke that they want carmelitas to be the dessert at their wedding. (I’m actually pretty sure they weren’t joking.)

I once froze a batch of carmelita bars, packed them next to an ice pack in my luggage, and took them to California with me. They were still cold and amazingly delicious after two plane rides and then getting left in a trunk while I ate dinner at a restaurant before visiting the Hollywood walk of fame. (Yes, I forgot about them in my excitement.) My friends’ faces were priceless when I announced I’d brought dessert.

Carmelitas: don’t leave home without them!

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My mom likes to package carmelitas in canning jars for individual servings at parties, which is not only super cute, but also convenient for transporting them to parties and get-togethers.

Vegan: This recipe is safe for anyone who (like me) is allergic to dairy and eggs.

Not allergic to dairy? Substitute melted butter for the olive oil. You can also use store-bought caramel. Caramel ice cream topping works great. (This was my favorite brand before finding out I was allergic to dairy.)

I’ve had some friends ask me what brands of ingredients I use, because they say that my carmelitas turn out better than theirs! I think they main thing is to use high-quality ingredients, and I also only buy organic. I’ll link to the specific products I use in the recipe below, so your carmelitas can turn out just like mine. 😉

(Note, because of how Amazon sells these products, they may be in packs.)

PS My favorite chocolate chips to use are Enjoy Life brand. They’re free of Soy, Nuts, Gluten and Dairy and are vegan and non gmo.

Note: when we switched to organic sugar, we reduced the sugar from 1 cup down to ¾ of a cup. The good stuff is sweeter! I’d recommend starting with ¾ cup, taste a piece of crumble (yes, this is me giving you an excuse to eat the uncooked crumble), and decide if you want it sweeter or not.

For mixture, mix together:
1 3/4 cup oats
1 ½ cup flour
¾ cup brown sugar (not packed)
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp salt

Mix together in a separate bowl, then add in:
¾ cup olive oil (or ¾ cup melted butter)
¾ Tbsp. cold water
1 tsp. vanilla

Set 1 ½ cups of mixture aside.

Press remaining mixture into a greased and floured 8×8 glass dish or pie plate.

Pour:
½ bag of chocolate chips on top of mixture.

Drizzle ¼ batch of my vegan caramel recipe over chocolate chips.

Sprinkle the mixture that was set aside on top of the caramel.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

Here’s the easy to print Chocolate Carmelita Bars Recipe PDF

I’ve linked to my favorite (vegan!) caramel recipe above. If you don’t have a dairy allergy, you can swap out my vegan caramel for store bought caramel.
In a separate bowl mix:
12.25 oz. jar caramel ice cream topping
1/8 cup flour
Then pour over over mixture.

Tips:

Do not overcook. The crumble will be a light golden brown and may not look done—it really is!
Use cold caramel when making this recipe–it works better than if the caramel is room temperature.