Oatmeal Bars (caramel chocolate oatmeal bars)

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.