Chocolate Oatmeal Fudge Bars, Gluten Free Option
You'll love these decadent bars with a gooey, rich layer of chocolate fudge nestled in between layers of golden, baked oatmeal layers. They'll knock your socks off for sure!
Calories:
Ingredients
Oatmeal Mixture
- 3 cups gluten free rolled oats or regular rolled oats, I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats, Old Fashioned
- 2½ cups gluten free all-purpose flour or all purpose flour (exclude xanthan gum if not doing gluten free flour) I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour
- 1¼ tsp . xanthan gum omit if flour already has xanthan added in, or using all purpose flour
- 1 tsp . baking soda
- ½ tsp . salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 cup butter room temp
- 2 cups packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ⅓ cup almond milk, or milk of choice
- 1 tablespoon . vanilla or almond extract
Chocolate Fudge Layer
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk I use Eagle Brand
- ⅓ cup butter
- 2 tsp . vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
Oatmeal Mixture
- In a medium-sized bowl, stir together flour, (xanthan gum-if needed), baking soda, cinnamon and salt to combine.
- In another bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar for 2 minutes. Beat in eggs and continue beating for 2 more minutes. Add vanilla and mix. Pour in milk and combine gently until incorporated.
- With your mixer on low, add flour mixture gradually and mix until combined well, then add in oats and mix in.
Chocolate Fudge Layer
- In a medium saucepan, combine the chocolate chips, condensed milk, and butter.
- Cook, stirring, over low-medium heat until melted.
- Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
Making the bars
- Press 2/3 of the oats mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 9 x 13 baking pan (Use a little flour or non-stick spray on your hands, if the mixture is sticking to your hands).
- Pour/spread the chocolate filling over the oat mixture.
- With the remaining oat mixture make small balls and flatten them lightly and place them over the top of the chocolate/Nutella.
- My trick is use a little cookie scoop and put the scoops all over and then spread/flatten it out using a knife or fork over the fudge layer.
Baking
- Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Cool and cut into squares and serve. Don't cut while still hot.
- Store in an airtight container at room temp or in refrigerator. You can also freeze remaining bars.
Notes
If you decide you don't want gluten-free, subsititute 2 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour and 3 cups rolled oats for the gluten free flour and oats.
If you want to add Nutella to the fudge layer, add 1 cup Nutella and reduce the chocolate chips to 1 & 1/2 cups and to the chocolate mixture instead of 2 cups of chocolate chips.