Oatmeal Fudge Bars

We all have our favorite websites, and I have to admit, that AllRecipes is one of mine.  I especially make frequent use of their ingredients search option.  This week, I needed to take cookies or bars to a meeting on Monday evening.  I went to my usually adequately stocked pantry, to find that I was out of sugar.  Hmmm, cookies or brownies without sugar.

I clicked over to AllRecipes, told them that I wanted a cookie recipe with brown sugar but without sugar.  I got a ton of results, so then I clicked the little button that sorts all the results by ratings and came up with is recipe for Chocolate Revel bars.  I followed some of the recommendations of reviewers and ended up with some very yummy bars.  Below is the recipe and directions that I ended up with when I made these bars.  These are very rich and can easily be served in little tiny squares without feeling like your scrimping on the serving.  Because they were gooey and I was taking them to a finger food affair, I ‘plated’ them in mini-muffin papers and that worked great!

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Cookie Crust:

1 cup Butter or Margarine, softened

2 cups Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla

3 cups Minute Oats

2 cups Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Salt

Fudge Filling

1-14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 ½ cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

2 Tablespoons Butter or Margarine

Crumb Topping

1/3 of the Cookie Crust dough

1 cup finely chopped Walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*, and lightly grease a 10"x14" inch baking pan (or half the recipe for a 9x9 square pan)


2. Prepare Cookie Crust dough: Beat together margarine and brown sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla and blend thoroughly.  Add dry ingredients and mix.  Resulting dough should be very soft cookie dough.  Press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan.  TIP: Since the dough is sticky, I found it difficult to press in to the pan with a spatula or fingers like I normally would.  But, if I dipped my spatula in flour and then pressed the dough down it didn’t stick to the spatula and the extra flour was negligible to the recipe.  Place dough in the refrigerator while you prepare Fudge Filling.


3. Prepare Fudge Filling:
   In a medium saucepan heat sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips on as low of a heat setting as possible.  You really just want this mixture to be warm enough to melt the chocolate chips.  As soon as the chocolate chips are melted, turn the heat off and add the butter or margarine and stir until margarine is melted.  Spread on top of cookie crust.


4. Crumble top: To the 1/3 remaining cookie crust dough, add ¼ cup flour and walnuts and mix until crumble.  Spread crumbles over the chocolate layer.  


5. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the cookie crust looks “done” from the side if you’re using a glass pan.


6. Let cool and cut and serve.  Enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.