Fudgy Oat Bars

My daughter had these at school last week and raved about them. Thank you to Crystal for the recipe:

Fudgey Oat Bars

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 cup butter (room temperature)
2 cups packed brown sugar

Cream these together. In the meantime, mix together your dry ingredients in a separate bowl…

2 ½ cups flour
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
3 cups regular oats

Now add the following to your butter/sugar mixture…

2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

Cream these together. , then add slowly add your dry ingredients.

Press half of the dough in the bottom of an un-greased 9x13 pan and bake for 5 minutes or so. You want the top to look more on the dry side, so that later it won’t be too doughy.

While the dough bakes, combine the following ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl.

12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (approximately 1 ½ cups)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. butter

Microwave these ingredients for between 3 - 5 minutes until melted and fudgey (but not overcooked!), stirring together often. I mix together every thirty seconds or so. You want it to become smooth and creamy chocolate, the ingredients totally combined together. Take the pan out of the oven, and spread the chocolate mixture in a layer on the baked oats. Crumble the rest of the dough over the top of the fudgey oats and bake until golden. (I just watch it – maybe 10 minutes or so – not too golden, but don’t want it to be too doughy either.) Cool the pan and cover with foil when not devouring!