Although the recipe may sound slightly healthy and I wanted myself to believe it, but I really can’t imagine that it is. But I guess that’s where all the good flavor comes from – the fat and calories!
I made this recipe for the first time last week from Southern Living: 30 Years of Our Best Recipes and they turned out to be pure little pieces of heaven. But we warned, it makes A LOT of little oat bar cookies. They’re similiar to the packaged granola bar things you get in the store with oats and chocolate in them which are also only pretending to be healthy. These taste much better than anything store bought, though.
Next time I’ll need to see if I can get my walnuts crushed up a little better before distributing in the batter. I also had no idea what a jellyroll pan was so I just used one of the really shallow roasting pans that came with my oven. It worked perfectly. I found spreading the milk & chocolate candies mixture over the oat mixture a bit difficult and things all wanted to move together…it’s also important not to leave more than 1/2 inch around the sides because your outer pieces will end up missing all their chocolate goodness.
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- 2 cups uncooked quick-cooking oats
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour I used half whole wheat
- 1 cup chopped pecans I only had walnuts
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter or margarine melted
- 1 1/2 cups candy-coated chocolate pieces divided, M&M’s
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk 14-ounce
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.)
- Combine oats, flour, pecans, brown sugar, salt and baking soda, stirring well. Add butter and sitr or beat at low speed with an electric mixer until mixture is crumbly. Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture; press remaining crumb mixture into a lightly greases 15- x 10-inch jellyroll pan. (Mixture will be thin in pan.) Bake for 10 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack.
- Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.)
- Place 1 cup chocolate pieces in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave on high 1 to 1 12 ,minutes, stirring after 30 seconds. Press chocolate pieces with back of spoon to mash them. (The candies will almost be melted with pieces of color coating still visible.) Stir in condensed milk. Spread mixture evenly over crust in pan, leaving a 1/2-inch border on all sides.
- Combine reserved 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture and remaining chocolate pieces; sprinkle evenly over chocolate mixture and press lightly.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden; cool in pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars.
