Turtle Bars?

These are turtle bars. Well, my version anyway. You'll see why.

(Yes, those are the classy paper plates with flowers)

I wanted to make something new and a little different, and so when I stumbled across the recipe, and realize that it was something unlike anything I'd made before, and that I had all the ingredients already, I was hooked.
For those of you who don't know, Turtle Bars are a bar cookie that generally have a cookie base, a caramel and nut middle, and a finishing chocolate layer. I got my recipe here.
So - adjustment number one: I don't really like nuts. I love peanut butter in almost anything, but real chunks of nuts in my food - not my thing. So, in these, I actually just sprinkled a layer of rice krispies in place of the nuts.
But the most important part of this recipe was the caramel: I got to make it myself! I'd never done that before. It basically involved melting butter and brown sugar together until it looked like this:
Exciting no? Although I was a little concerned that there just didn't seem like enough. If I were to make these again, I would probably double or least make 1.5 times the amount of caramel.
All in all, they were pretty good, and definitely something I'd try again, but maybe with a few more modifications.

Tip of the Day: If you're looking to substitute the nuts in a cookie or cake recipe, try rice krispies or a cereal like grape nuts - so you don't lose the crunch factor.