Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars

 

Have you ever made a dessert so sinfully delicious that you knew you couldn't be trusted around it?  In a four hour span, I found this recipe, made the treats, cut them up, ate four, and packed the majority onto a plate to send to work with Andrew the next day.  I kept almost two dozen of these little guys, and I think Andrew ate maybe two.  So yeah.  Let's just say it's a good thing I've been at the gym four days a week, because these babies are irresistible!

You can get the full recipe here.  It's a lot of steps, but honestly, I didn't find it much more complicated than making chocolate chip cookies, and the extra effort is SO worth it.  I do want to tell you about some of the small things I did a little differently.

This recipe calls for old-fashioned rolled oats, but all I had was quick-cooking oats.  Guess what?  It turned out FINE.  Good to know, right?  Also, I like raisins, don't get me wrong...but they just don't belong in these bars!  I omitted them.

Lastly, it's recommended to eat these bars chilled, or even frozen.  Um, why?  They are SO good at room temperature!  Obviously, feel free to chill to your heart's content, if you so desire.  I'm just saying, these are perfectly fantastic hacked right off of this big hunk about 5 minutes after you heft it out of the pan. 

Also, I cut this into WAY more than 32 pieces...they are so rich, and I personally prefer to eat four tiny ones than two big ones.  Maybe that's just me?

Anyway, this is a fun recipe!  It's definitely not fancy, but it's a nice change from chocolate chip cookies or brownies, and would be a great treat to bring to a Super Bowl party this weekend!