Bittersweet Chocolate Oatmeal Bars

If the idea of a fudgy, creamy, almost-inch-thick layer of bittersweet chocolate makes you feel funny inside (in that good way), then try to imagine this lovely layer sandwiched between what is essentially a buttery, crumbly, oatmeal cookie. The cookie knows enough in this recipe to yield to the beauty of the bittersweetness- it takes a tasty yet restrained backseat to the almost intimidating layer of chocolate.

Makes your heart race, doesn’t it?

OATMEAL BASE & TOPPING:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup oats (not instant)
1/2 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

CHOCOLATE FILLING:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips or chopped bits
1/4 cup butter
1. Preheat oven to 350°, and grease a 9 x 9 cake pan.
2. BASE & TOPPING: mix together flour, brown sugar and oatmeal in a food processor; pulse in butter until course crumbs are created. Add egg in a steady stream and mix until blended; dough will come together in some spots and be crumbly in others. Pulse in nuts, if using.
3. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of dough (mostly the crumbly bits), and press the rest into your prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Let pan cool on a rack slightly.
4. CHOCOLATE FILLING: microwave all three ingredients in a medium bowl for 2 minutes, and stir to combine. Microwave for additional 15 second increments to help melt chips and butter, if necessary. Pour over baked oatmeal base, and sprinkle reserved crumb mixture evenly over top of chocolate.
5. Bake 20 minutes, until oat topping looks golden brown. Place pan on cooling rack, and chill before cutting into bars. Serve at room temperature for best flavor.
Tips:
- Wondering what kind of oatmeal to use? As long as you don’t use instant (or steel-cut), you’ll be just fine. I usually buy regular ‘rolled oats’ oatmeal, as it lends a more “oatmeally” texture to whatever I’m baking, but you could use quick-cooking and still fare quite well. (Since this recipe involves whirling the oats around in a food processor, you’re not getting the big flake oatmeal feel anyway- so use regular or quick-cooking interchangeably.)
- Don’t have a food processor? Not a problem at all. Just cut the butter into the flour/sugar/oats mixture with a pastry cutter or two knives, and stir the rest in. (And ask Santa for a food processor this year.)
- Nuts, or no nuts? Not everyone is up for nuts, I know. If you are, then you might choose to sprinkle extra nuts (that have been finely ground in the food processor) on the top of the bars (like I did for the pictured version here). If you want a nut-free bar, then simply skip ’em altogether- and add a couple of tablespoons of extra oatmeal to the base & topping dough.
- The chocolate options: as always, chocolate can be switched up to suit your preference/obsession. Milk chocolate, you say? Use that instead! Semi-sweet fiend? By all means, add it in. (Just know that the sweetened condensed milk is, well, sweet- so using a sweeter chocolate than bittersweet will result in a sweeter bar… perhaps right up your alley.)
- Caramel, really? Oh, yes! Replace the chocolate with about 30 of the little caramel squares that come in the plastic wrappers, and you have yourself a totally different type of bar. (Because I get carried away easily, I might layer caramel squares on top of the chocolate base anyways the next time I make this recipe. Chocolate + caramel + oatmeal = pretty damed good.)
- Want more (but thinner) bars? Use a 13 x 9 cake pan, and bake for 20 minutes instead of 25. Pressing the dough into the bottom as a base will be tougher to do, so go ahead and steal from the topping reserves- no one will know the difference.
- Enjoy!
Click Here to PRINT This Recipe Now!
Related Recipes & Posts:
February 15th, 2012 | More Sweets Please | 1 Comment | Tags: Bars, Chocolate, Oatmeal