Peanut Butter Fudge Oatmeal Bars

Peanut Butter Fudge Oatmeal Bars

Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars

These bars were delicious - a chunky oatmeal layer topped with a creamy chocolate layer, and crowned with more chunks of the delicious oatmeal. And if that isn't enough, peanuts and raisins running throughout! I must warn you though that this dessert is a bit labor-intensive (I even wrote that next to the title in my cookbook). There are a lot of different steps and bowls that have to be used! So, while they are worth the effort, just make sure to save some time to make these!

Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars

from Baking: From My Home to Yours

Makes 32 bars

For the Oatmeal Layer:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped (I used my mini-chopper)

For the Chocolate Layer:

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup moist, plump raisins

3/4 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or butter a 13 x 9 inch baking pan and place on a cooking sheet.

Oatmeal Layer:

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Beat the butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the brown sugar and beat for 2 minutes, then add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low and add dry ingredients, mixing just until combined. Stir in the oats and peanuts by hand.

Set aside 1 1/2 - 2 cups of the mixture, then turn remaining dough into the prepared pan. Gently press dough evenly over the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

Chocolate Layer:

Set a heatproof bowl over (without touching the water) a saucepan of simmering water. Combine the condensed milk, chocolate chips, butter, and salt in the bowl and stir occasionally until milk is warm and chocolate and butter are melted. Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in vanilla, raisins, and peanuts.

Pour the warm chocolate over the oatmeal crust, the scatter remaining oatmeal over top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until topping is golden brown and chocolate layer is starting to come away from the sides of the pan. Cool for about 2 hours.

Refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting. I recommend serving them chilled as well.

Pumpkin Raisin Oat Muffins

For those of us that love to bake, the first hint of fall weather (or really, just the word September) often starts brings about the strong desire to bake with pumpkin. And with the recent rumors of a pumpkin shortage, I ran out to the store and picked up some cans of the pumpkin puree - I need to go back soon to stockpile it! So when I saw these healthy muffins on my friend Jenn's blog, I decided they would be a good starting point for all things pumpkin.

Jenn suggests using yogurt instead of butter to make these a bit healthier, but I had some applesauce in my fridge already so I used that instead. Various taste-testers approved these and said you could barely notice that there was no butter! I often think I can taste a small difference, but for a mid-morning snack, they are perfect and you feel good eating them.

Pumpkin Raisin Oat Muffins

slightly adapted from Jenn and Food, Perfect Together

Makes 12 muffins

3/4 cup whole wheat or all-purpose flour
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
2/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted or 1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease and flour or line a 12-cup muffin tin.

Whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, stir together the pumpkin, milk, egg, and butter/applesauce. Make a well in the dry mixture and gradually stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture, just until all ingredients are moistened. Fold in the raisins.

Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling about 3/4 of the way. Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Caramel Oatmeal Chewies

Hello all! Did you miss me? I hope not too much because in another week I will be going away again! My cooking is severely suffering these days because somehow we are so busy, even though it's summer break for me. I had all these grandiose ideas of cooking elaborate meals while Chuck was at work and blogging to my heart's content about them but unfortunately that hasn't happened yet. Maybe in August!

Anyway, I baked these to bring to a party and they were a big hit! An ooey, gooey, caramel and chocolate delight that everyone loved. These are super-easy and very delicious so make some today and save yourself a piece!

Note: If you click on the blog link below, you will see that the blogger has not posted since sometime in early 2008; but I always like to give credit where credit is due, so I am linking both to her blog as well as the Toll House site, where I found the original recipe.

Caramel Oatmeal Chewies

recipe adapted from VeryBestBaking.com, ingredient amounts from Kyla's Cookies

Makes 24-32 bars, depending on how you cut them

2 1/3 cups flour, divided

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup butter, melted

12-ounce jar caramel sauce

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 x 9 baking dish.

Combine 2 cups of the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and oats in a large bowl. Stir in the butter. Reserve 1 cup of this mixture and press the rest into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven.

Heat caramel sauce (with lid OFF) in microwave for 15 seconds or until slightly warmed. Mix in a small bowl with remaining 1/3 cup flour. Spread over hot crust.

Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the caramel layer. Crumble the reserved cup of oat mixture over top. Bake 20-22 minutes, or until top is golden brown and caramel is bubbling.

Cool completely and cut unto squares. (These are very rich so the bars can be small.)

Half of the chocolate chip layer...

Apple-Cranberry Pie with Oatmeal Cookie Crust

Mmmmm, this pie was so comforting and delicious. I believe I underbaked it slightly because I was worried about the crust burning, so please follow the directions where it says to cover with foil after 30 minutes if that happens to you. That being said, the oatmeal cookie crust was delightful and when mixed with the apples and cranberries was simply wonderful.

Make sure you have some vanilla ice cream on hand to serve with this - especially if you are serving the pie warm (recommended!). I had enough crumbs and filling left over to make four little muffin pies. If you do this, the baking time needs to be significantly reduced, I would suggest checking them after about 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Apple-Cranberry Pie with Oatmeal Cookie Crust
from recipegirl.com
Makes one pie

Crust:
3 cups rolled (old fashioned) oats
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp (rounded measure) salt
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup + 2 T. brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup butter (2 sticks), melted

Filling:
7 cups peeled, sliced Granny Smith apples
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
3 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground allspice (or ground cloves)
¼ tsp ground nutmeg (fresh is best!)
½ tsp grated lemon rind
3 Tbs unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup brown sugar (packed)
½ cup sour cream

Prepare crust: Combine all crust ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, and mix well. Press firmly and evenly into the bottom and sides of a 9 or 10-inch pie pan, forming a thick crust. Reserve about a cup of the crust mix for the topping.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Place sliced apples and cranberries in a large bowl. Drizzle with lemon juice and sprinkle with spices; toss until well coated. Add rind. Sprinkle in flour and mix again. Gradually add brown sugar and sour cream as you mix. Don't worry if the apple slices break a little while being mixed and tossed.

Distribute the filling into the unbaked crust. Sprinkle the reserved crust crumbs over the top and pat neatly into place.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the apples are soft and the crust is nicely browned on the edges. Note: If the top appears to be browning too quickly during baking, cover loosely with foil (check after about 30 minutes).

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

I titled these Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies but in reality they are just my favorite oatmeal raisin cookies from growing up, and I wanted to use up the dried cranberries I had in my refrigerator! Plus, it makes them sound much more fall and festive, don't you think?

This recipe is straight from the lid of the Quaker Oats canister - you can't get much more authentic than that!

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
from Quaker Oatmeal
Makes about 4 dozen

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup raisins (or any other small or chopped dried fruit)

Heat oven to 350°F.

In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.