Name: Oatmeal Fudge Bars
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 33 min
Total time: 53 min
Ingredients: 1 cup quick oats; 1 cup packed brown sugar; 3/4 cup all-purpose flour; 1/4 teaspoon baking powder; 1/4 teaspoon baking soda; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted; 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; 1/4 cup packed brown sugar; 2 teaspoons instant coffee; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips; 4 tablespoons unsalted butter; 1 large egg

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These Oatmeal Fudge Bars have a crumbly oatmeal topping and a rich chocolate center. A scoop of vanilla ice cream on one of these warm cookie bar is a magical dessert.

This summer I am working on updating the photos from some of the first recipes that I shared here on the blog from many, many years ago.

It has been fun seeing how much my photography has changed and improved over the years. Of course, it's embarrassing as well because some of these old pictures are bad. We are talking, really bad. I can't even believe I shared some of these.

But I guess that's what happens with anything. The more you work on something, the more you learn and improve.

As I was looking through some of the first recipes I had shared when I first started blogging, I came across this Oatmeal Fudge Bars recipe. If you want to see the first really bad picture, go to the very bottom of the post. I left one picture, so I could compare.

Since I couldn't remember the last time I had made these fudge bars, I knew I wanted to try them again soon.

Our youngest was having some friends over to swim, and we had company coming for dinner, so I knew I would have plenty of taste testers to help me eat the crumble bars.

One word of warning when baking cookie bars. Do not try to clean the house and bake desserts at the same time.

Multi-tasking and baking isn't the best idea. I tried to do it one time when I was making a batch of this Caramel Peanut Butter Pretzel Fudge and totally burned the chocolate and had to start all over.

This time I forgot to add the egg to the chocolate layer in the first batch of these fudge bars. They still actually tasted fine, but the second pan of oatmeal bars was so much better because the fudge layer was creamier and fudgier.

How to make Oatmeal Fudge Bars:

Mix together the dry ingredients and the melted butter until wet crumbs form. It will kind of remind you of wet sand. Set aside ¾ cup of the loose crumbs for the topping later. Do not pack the crumbs in your measuring cup.

Press the rest of the crumbs firmly into the bottom of a greased 8x8 pan and bake.

Stir together the dry ingredients for the fudge layer.

Melt the chocolate chips and butter in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir until creamy. You may need to heat it again for another 20-30 seconds. Pro Tip: Let the chocolate cool slightly before stirring in the egg. If you do not wait, you will end up with scrambled eggs in your chocolate, and that's not good.

Stir the chocolate into the flour mixture until it is thick and creamy. Spread the fudge mixture on top of the cooled crust.

Sprinkle the reserved crumbs evenly on top and bake it again.

Let the cookie bars cool before cutting into bars. You can cut these Oatmeal Fudge Bars into 9 bigger bars or cut them into 18 smaller bars depending on how many you need.

More easy cookie bars recipes:

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