The ultimate oatmeal fudge bars

                                       

On my daily blog crawl yesterday I noticed an oatmeal frenzy has hit the globe, from the States to Europe to New Zealand. I must have been hit without noticing, because on Friday I was on a quest to find rolled oats, not as easy a task as I though it would be. After searching a couple of neighborhood supermarkets, I finally came across them at our small local Asian store, of all places.

Once again, I was inspired by a recipe posted by a fellow food blogger, Ellen from Like Mothers Like Daughters.

WARNING: this dessert, like my brownie recipe, must be made ONLY for get-togethers, picnics, parties, brunches & BBQs, in other words for large congregations, so that you are sure you will not be taking home leftovers. It is so calorie-laden yet delicious, you absolutely DO NOT want it lying around your kitchen for hours days tempting you at every turn.

Stock up on ample amounts of sugar, chocolate, butter and condensed milk and get to work!

Ingredients

1 cup softened butter + 1 tbsp butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups rolled oats

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 15 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease a baking pan (as per instructions a 9×13 inch pan; I am not sure that is the exact size I used, but they turned out fine).

Beat together butter and both sugars until fluffy and add eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Add vanilla at this point (I omitted this step as I did not have any).

In a separate bowl whisk together oats, flour, baking soda, 1 tsp salt and cinnamon. Add to the butter mixture and beat until just combined, making sure there are no flour lumps in the dough. Set aside.

In a small sauce pan combine chocolate chips (I chopped up some semi sweet and a little dark chocolate), condensed milk, butter, 1tsp salt and vanilla (again, I left out the vanilla). Turn to medium-low heat and stir until completely melted and creamy. Divide the dough into two portions, with one portion slightly larger than the other. Use the latter as your bottom crust, pressing it into your greased pan. Then pour fudge mixture on top of unbaked crust. Avoid pouring near the edges or have your crust go up the sides (that is what I did!) to avoid the fudge from touching the pan.

Flatten pieces of dough with your hands and place them on top of the fudge. Leave a few windows on top so you can see the fudge underneath. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the dough turns golden brown. Cool completely before cutting. See tips below.

A personal note: as much as I find a pinch of salt irresistible and necessary in desserts, I thought the fudge was a touch salty. I asked a few people what they thought and it didn't seem to bother them, but maybe they were just being polite. I am a salt girl, really, so you may want to go easy and taste before adding in the whole tsp. Then again, I skipped the vanilla step, so that may have made the difference.

I know it will be really difficult to wait the hour or so before cutting this into bars. Here is a handy tip for things to do while letting this cool.