Chocolate Crumb Bars

I know you can here the birds chirping here at the blog but if I told you everything that was going on in our world you would totally understand the silence.  I haven't even photographed anything in the last two weeks.  That's how busy I've been.  But hopefully I'll get to reveal the reason for my absence soon.  It's super exciting and a dream come true!

Now, let's talk about these bars.  Yes, another bar recipe.  I have a thing for them.  Especially when chocolate is involved and in this recipe chocolate is a must.  These were very easy to make and didn't take me very long at all to put together.  Take some to your neighbor!

Chocolate Crumb Bars

1 cup or 2 sticks cold butter

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

Mix butter in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Beat in flour, sugar and salt until crumbly. With floured fingers, press 2 cups crumb mixture onto bottom of prepared baking pan; reserve remaining mixture. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Combine 1 cup morsels and sweetened condensed milk in a small, heavy-duty saucepan. Warm over low heat, stirring until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Spread over hot crust.

Stir nuts and remaining morsels into reserved crumb mixture.  I think I had less than a cup left but it turned out fine.  Sprinkle over chocolate filling. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until center is set. Cut into bars once cool.

Source:  Very Best Baking

K Bars

Peanut butter, chocolate, and butterscotch all meld together in this crunchy cereal bar!

Back in the day when I was a college student I was involved in the Baptist Student Ministry.  Many great memories came from there.  It was, and still is, staffed with the most wonderful secretary you could ever know, Mrs. Barbara Raines.  She is a classic lady and this recipe is straight from her recipe box.  I can still remember how wonderful it tasted back then and I'm so glad the recipe hasn't gotten lost.  This is a no bake recipe and is easily mixed together over the stove.  It has the perfect combination of crunchy and sweet tastiness!

Sack it up and take some to your neighbors!

K Bars
(click for printable)

1 cup sugar
1 cup karo syrup
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
4 cups Special K cereal
6 oz. butterscotch chips
3 oz. chocolate chips

Bring to a boil sugar and karo syrup.  Take off burner and add in crunch peanut butter.  Then gently mix in cereal.  Butter a 9x13 dish and spread cereal mixture in it.  Then melt butterscotch chips and chocolate chips together and spread over top.  Cut into squares and put in refrigerator for 30 minutes for icing to set.  Don't leave in longer than this as it will be too hard.

Source:  Mrs. Barbara Raines

Rocky Road Bars

Yummy, gooey, comforting bars made from chocolate chip cookies, marshmallows, and nuts.

I first saw this recipe in the newspaper a few years ago and it sounded easy and delicious so I cut it out and saved it.  I remember making it for my coworkers when I first found the recipe and the bars disappeared fast.

They have been in my mind to make and so I finally got a moment to try these out.  I made a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookie dough using only one cup of chocolate chips in the mix.  I was out of nuts otherwise, these would have been even extra delicious with walnuts on top.  They are best when they are still warm as the marshmallows will still be soft.  Dive in!

Rocky Road Bars
(click for printable)

1 pkg refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough or homemade batch
1 cup choc chips
1 cup marshmallows
1/2 cup nuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350.  Press dough into brownie pan.  Bake about 28 min.  Remove pan from oven and sprinkle with 1/2 cup choc chips.  When they start to melt spread them out with a knife.  Then sprinkle marshmallows, remaining choc chips, and nuts.  Return to oven for 5 more min until marshmallows start to puff.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Cut into bars.

Oatmeal Bars

These bars have four layers...an oatmeal shortbread crust, chocolate, caramel, and topped off with another layer of oatmeal shortbread mix that results in a crumbly topping. These are melt-in-your-mouth divine. So divine in fact that I was tempted to eat one for breakfast one morning. After all, it did have oats in it but I refrained. Only until lunch.


Korey and I recently attended a gathering of his friends that was potluck-style.  I brought lasagna.  Well, really Korey did because he made it from start to finish.  It's his specialty.

The true food winner, in my mind...er mouth, was the dessert made by our hostess.  It was a bar layered with oats, caramel and chocolate.  I love bar desserts.  I knew I had to make these soon! 

The next weekend I dug through my recipe box and found a similar recipe I had stashed away and had been wanting to try.  It just so happened that it resembled what I had tasted the previous weekend.

I'm so glad that I split half of the pan with my parents because who knows how many we would have eaten in just a short time.

Oatmeal Bars

(click for printable)

1 pkg caramel bits (in baking aisle)
1/2 cup milk
2 cups oats
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 sticks of butter, cut into pieces
1 pkg chocolate chips

Melt caramels and milk in pan over low heat for 5 min stirring until the caramels are melted and the milk mixed in.  Let cool.  Stir oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda and salt together.  Using a pastry cutter or fork, blend in the butter pieces until the mixture is crumbly.  Press half of mixture into lined 9x13 pan.  I used parchment paper.  Foil would also work.  Bake at 350 for 20 min.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips and then pour the caramel mixture over the chocolate.  Top with the remaining oat crumble mixture and bake in the oven for another 20-25 min.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Lift out from the pan and cut into squares.

"Clean out your fridge" bars

When I'm stressed I bake. For some reason I've always just found it relaxing. And making something with chocolate makes baking even better. This weekend I realized that I made three things which is quite alot for me:

1. Honeybun Cake

2. 5 Layer Bars

3. French Toast Casserole

The Honeybun Cake I made was for a potluck dinner at a friend's house in Denton. I decided to forego something pumpkin flavored because I didn't know if everyone likes pumpkin. This cake was absolutely delicious!! Some of the flavor feedback included tastes comparable to a coffee cake and a donut. The reason I made it is because back when I was living in Thailand we had a bake-off among the office staff but only the guys could compete. This was the winning dessert. And alas I found a recipe for it! Korey did give this a thumbs up.

The 5 layer bars I made turned into many layers as I scavenged our freezer where we keep all of our baking chocolate and nuts. We had many half-used bags of stuff so I decided to throw them all in. Mine included chocolate chips, toffee chips, a toffee bar, cinnamon chips (very good if you haven't tried these yet!), peanut butter chips, pecans, walnuts, and almonds topped off by the condensed milk. Yum! These were very easy to make and Korey also gave these a thumbs up.



The French Toast Casserole I decided to make was because we had a leftover loaf of sourdough bread that we weren't eating so that inspired me to make it. This recipe includes nutmeg so if you're not a big fan of the taste just leave it out. Korey hasn't tried this but I've decided to take the leftovers to work as I know this is too much to eat for me and my sis.
As for the wedding, Korey, my sis and I spent Sunday at my parent's house which has become Grand Central Wedding Station. We worked most of the day on the little things that needed to get done and we're making progress.
Only 12 days to go!