Skip to main content

Chocolate On Oatmeal Bars


Chocolate On Oatmeal Bars
Source: Maida Heatter's Brand-New Book of Great Cookies (Random House, 1995 ed.), pg. 71.

Amidst the tornado warnings and chaos going on outside, I made these yesterday and brought them to share at the library. Now you know that anything with oatmeal and chocolate is going to be good!

The recipe reads as written but I changed a few of the steps which I think makes it easier to follow. This calls for a 9-inch square pan but I only have an 8-inch so I used it. The only difference is that the bars might be a little thicker. Also, I only had almond milk on hand and used it in the exact proportion. It was fine.

I think these actually tasted better the next day. Just store them in an air-tight container.

Oatmeal Layer

3 oz. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup sifted unbleached flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal (not "instant")
3 oz. milk chocolate, cut into 1/4 inch pieces

Preheat oven to 350 and use lower rack.

Line a 8 or 9-inch square pan with foil. Spray the foil with a nonstick spray. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan.  After it has melted, cook an additional 30 seconds. Set aside.


Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda.
 
Place in a large bowl and stir in the oatmeal.

 
Add the melted butter and mix.

Turn into the prepared pan and with floured fingertips, press the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan.

Bake for 10 minutes. (You can work on the chocolate layer as this is baking.)
As soon as it is removed from the oven, sprinkle the milk chocolate evenly over the crust and allow it to melt.



 Chocolate Layer
2/3 cup minus 2 TBS. sifted flour
2 TBS. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 1/2 oz. (3/4 cups) walnuts, cut into small-medium pieces
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
2 oz. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt. Set aside.

Stir the vanilla into the milk. Set aside.


In a small double-boiler or saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate. Stir to mix and then transfer to a mixer bowl.


Beat in the sugar...

 
and the egg.

Lower the speed and add half of sifted dry ingredients...
then the milk,
then the remaining dry ingredients.

 
Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the walnuts.



Pour the chocolate mixture over the crust and spread evenly.


Bake for about 25 minutes until a tester comes out with just a bit of the chocolate mixture clinging to it.
Let stand until cool.
Invert the pan by covering it with a board or cookie sheet. Cut the bars with a long, sharp knife into small squares.

Store in an air-tight container.
 



 
 
Labels:

Comments

Lindsey @ American Heritage Cooking said…
Dang these look good! I say the thicker the better!!! I spy those Hershey's bars you picked up the other day ;-)

Ps- You work at a library?!!?! I'm totally jealous! Libraries and bookstores make me happy.
April 30, 2014 at 10:43 AM
Phillip Oliver said…
Yes, I work at the University of North Alabama library. And before I went into library school, I worked in bookstores. There seems to be a trend here!
April 30, 2014 at 10:48 AM
Lindsey @ American Heritage Cooking said…
Cool! Do you just drink in the book smell everyday?! Does it have a rare book room? Because if it does then I'm coming to visit!!!
April 30, 2014 at 5:43 PM
Phillip Oliver said…
Lindsey, I am on the main floor and these days it is mostly computers. :(

We do have an archives room upstairs with books and materials on local history. The top two floors are stacks and stacks of books. These days though the students want everything online! Very sad.
May 2, 2014 at 8:06 AM
Lindsey @ American Heritage Cooking said…
Booo to reading and researching online. I used to study in the old stacks at Wake Forest at this rickety desk that was actually built into the bookshelves. Sigh. Happiness!
May 12, 2014 at 7:30 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Palm Beach Brownies with Chocolate Covered Mints

Palm Beach Brownies with Chocolate Covered Mints Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.) , pg. viii. I made these brownies again a few days ago and they were just as good as ever. This time I made half with York Peppermint Patties and the other half with Andes mints. There wasn't a noticeable difference in taste. The ones with the Andes mints were pretty with the mint green color but the ones with Yorks are equally pretty. When Maida Heatter's first book (the above-mentioned title) won the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame Award in 1998, she accepted her award on stage and began to toss out these brownies to the audience. Everybody clamored for one and went wild. The original recipe came from a local deli in her area and did not include the mints (that recipe is available in the first edition of this book). She tinkered with the recipe and added the mints which do not melt during baking. I've been itching to ...
9 comments
Read more

Mulattoes

Mulattoes Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.) , pg. 199. Of the hundreds of Maida Heatter cookie recipes, this may be the most famous. These are chunky but soft, extremely chocolaty,  full of nuts and chocolate chips. Sinfully delicious! They are easy to make. The trickiest part may be the baking time. After making them numerous times, I have learned to only bake them 10 or 11 minutes at the most, then remove them and allow them to sit on the hot baking pan for about 5 minutes. They will be extremely soft to the touch but eventually they firm up nicely.  I just use my hand mixer for these. Although the recipe states that it makes 18 large cookies, I find that the yield is slightly higher, even when making them fairly large. I use a tablespoon scoop to form the cookies. 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate 3 oz. (3/4 stick) butter 1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking pow...
12 comments
Read more

Frozen Chocolate Mousse

Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2006 ed.) , pg. 228. Here is a dessert sure to make any chocoholic swoon. Silky and decadent, this frozen mousse is like a rich chocolate ice cream. It is really easy to make - all the folding required will give you a workout but it is worth it! The crust can be made with crushed wafer cookies or you could even buy a ready-made crust. If doing your own, the instructions say to apply the crumbs around the sides of the pan (use a springform pan) but I did not do this - I just made a bottom layer. You will have to run a sharp knife around the pan before releasing the catch on the pan. The mousse is soft (even after freezing) and it will need to be put back in the freezer as soon as possible after serving. Maida Heatter recommends covering the mousse with either whipped cream, strawberries or chocolate leaves. I did not do either, it looks lovely without a topping. Crust 8 oz. choc...
5 comments
Read more