Thursday, February 9, 2017

Chocolate Oatmeal Bars

Kevin came home with a couple new recipes to try last week.  My husband has a habit of spotting good recipes and emailing them to me or printing them out.  He was very proud of himself for researching good dessert options.  He was right - we loved these Chocolate Oatmeal Bars!  I made one batch for our Super Bowl party and they were really tasty so I thought I'd share the recipe with you today since several people requested the recipe on instagram.

Chocolate Oatmeal Bars

Recipe makes one 8x8 pan.  
They are rich so they go a long way when you cut them into small rectangles.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Filling:
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
4 oz chocolate to melt (I used a mix of semi sweet chips and milk chocolate bits)
1/2 t vanilla

Oatmeal Bars:
1 1/2 stick room temp butter 
(I started w 1 1/4 stick of butter but had to add in a little more 
to get a crumbly/chunky oatmeal mixture)
1 1/2 c packed brown sugar
1 t vanilla
1/4 baking soda
sprinkle of salt
1 c flour
1 c quick cook oats
1/4 c m&ms (I mixed mini and regular sized plus a few chocolate chips)

Bake at 350 for 23-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Put the chocolate filling ingredients in a bowl and microwave until bubbly.  Stir together until everything smooth, let cool until it thickens.

Add the oatmeal bar ingredients into the mixer in the order they are listed and you'll end up a crumbly mixture.  Put 3/4 of the mixture into a greased 8x8 pan and press it flat leaving a little ridge around the edge.  Pour the chocolate filling on top.  Drop dabs of the remaining oatmeal bar mixture over the top of the chocolate filling.  Then save the M&Ms for last.  Sprinkle those on top and bake.


Let them cool a bit before slicing.  Make sure to cut the bars small because they're a rich treat.  They are good for several days so they'd make a perfect Valentine's Day treat for friends.  We are hoping to make some yummy desserts for our neighbors and friends this week.

I'm also thinking this would be a fun recipe to add peanut butter to, to make a peanut butter filling instead or to add reese's pieces to instead of m&ms.  The possibilities are endless with these oatmeal bars.

You'll have to let me know if you give them a try.
Hope you have a sweet Thursday!!

Linking up for Girl Chat with Emily today

16 comments:

  1. Yum! Love the idea of adding Peanut Butter to these. How much would you add to the recipe?

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    1. We are big peanut butter fans! I'd probably decrease the amount of butter and add in 1/4 c of peanut butter. Then slowly add in a little more pb to help combine the ingredients if it was looking too dry.

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  2. These sound so amazing. My mouth is watering!

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  3. Those do sound rich. I was just trying to think of something to make for tonight. I may have to take inventory of our stash and see if I can pull these off.

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  4. Oh my goodness! Those look so delicious!!
    I love how dense and thick they are!! And because there's oatmeal in them… They're kind of healthy, right!? 😉

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  5. These look completely decadent! I will most certainly be trying them!

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  6. These oatmeal bars sounds delicious!! And because it has oatmeal I'd feel better about having like 5 of them ;) Thank you so much for linking up with us, Whitney! Beautifully Candid

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  7. Those look so yummy! Thanks for sharing the recipe - and bravo to your recipe research department. :)

    Whitney @ Come Home For Comfort

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  8. These look really good. I love the idea of them and can't wait to try them out!

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  9. Mmmm! These look really good. Thanks for the recipe!

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  10. These look amazing! I signed up to bring a treat to my 3rd grader's V-Day party next week at school and I haven't found anything I wanted to bring. Found it!

    Jen
    jpabstfitness.com

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  11. These sound so good! I love anything with oatmeal in it. And oatmeal and chocolate is one of my favorite combos.

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  12. I saved this one to Pinterest! I love oatmeal and chocolate together. You made them very festive and I can't wait to try.

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  13. Yummmy!!! These look AMAZING!! Can't wait to try them!

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  14. I am going to make this for MOPS in March. I always want to do something fun and festive and since M&M's are so easy to switch out, I can do that and use Spring colored ones.

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  15. Interesting. I never would've thought to put chocolate in the middle. But I do love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, so these can't be too bad!

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