Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Everyone and their neighbor was pinning these Oatmeal Fudge Bars on Pinterest this morning so I thought, "why pin when I can bake?" And bake I did.  I had to giggle just a little when I read in the comments section, "Delicious LDS Dessert Bars" as I've never know a dessert to have a religion. We're not LDS but man, I LOVE the local cooking. People here in Utah cook like I do in all it's wheat grinding, bread baking, homemade glory. I love that. Anyhow...

I thought my men-folk deserved a nice treat because they did a whole lot of shoveling this morning. This is our eight foot fence:

So yeah, they had their work cut out for them.

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Makes 36 bars
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12-ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips
¼ cup margarine
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 × 13-inch baking pan and set aside.

Cream together butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl; add eggs and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl, and then add to creamed mixture. Mix in oats.

Combine sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and margarine in a heavy saucepan, and heat until chocolate is just melted. Stir in vanilla and nuts.

Spread two-thirds of the dough into prepared baking pan.

 Spread with chocolate mixture.

 Drop remaining one-third of dough on top by spoonfuls.

 Bake 25 minutes.

Cool and then cut into bars.

These are really, really rich and incredibly delicious.

Highly recommended.