These bars are outrageously delicious! These will definitely become one of my favorite recipes. Gosh they are awesome. Gonna be hard to leave these alone. I found this on Martha Stewarts website and she refers to them as Oatmeal Bars. Yes, they do have a lot of oatmeal in them but the caramel & chocolate are the standout flavors so I think they should be called "Caramel Chocolate Oatmeal Bars". Maybe the chocolate isn't supposed to be such a standout flavor but I added more than the recipe called for, because I put an additional handful of semi sweet & milk chocolate chips on top of the oatmeal topping before placing them in the oven. And I did put a bit more caramel topping in the middle than called for. The recipe calls for 48 caramels and I put like....60 I think. More is better, I figured. Other than that I followed the recipe. The sides get a bit hard because of the hardened caramel but it's still edible and good. Kind of a caramelized crunchy texture on the sides. The recipe doesn't call for nuts which is good because I don't care for nuts but I'm sure walnuts or pecans would be awesome in this. The biggest gripe I have about this recipe is unwrapping all those damn caramels. Besides that, it was a breeze and came together pretty quickly although they take a long time to thoroughly cool. When they are completely cooled, they are a very heavy and sturdy cookie. Not fragile or mushy at all. They wrap very nicely for gift giving or toting around. I lined my 13x9 inch pan with heavy duty foil and sprayed with Pam. The recipe mentions parchment on the bottom but I always use foil for my bar cookies.
Yeah, I definitely recommend these. I've had this recipe for years and I'm not sure what took me so long to make it but now that I have - I will be making them often!
Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
Makes 1 dozen.
- Vegetable-oil cooking spray
- 48 soft caramel-candy cubes
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 10 ounces (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-by-13- inch baking pan with cooking spray. Line with a 9-by-21-inch sheet of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on each short side. Put caramels and cream in a small saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until caramels are melted, about 5 minutes. Let cool.
- Stir together oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and the salt in a large bowl. Blend in butter with a fork or your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal; press half of mixture onto bottom of lined pan. Bake until just set and starting to color around edges, about 20 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle crust with chocolate chips; drizzle with caramel mixture. Top with remaining crumb mixture. Bake until pale golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.
1 comment:
They look beautiful and I am completely on-board with everything in them. Caramel, yes....chocolate, yes, oats...well, since there is chocolate and caramel...haha, jk!
Great job, I'm gonna bookmark this one!
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