Bars Recipes with sweetened condensed milk

The past week and half have been such a blur. I’m wrapping up a bunch of projects at work right now because my last week is next week & then I immerse myself into wedding planning full time, then the wedding, and honeymoon. I’ll be gone a month from work so there’ll be some brain dumping going on next week. It’s weird. I feel like when I say “my last week, ” I feel like I’m moving on to another job or going on maternity leave, lol…to be very frank, I haven’t had any time to really cook or worry about the blog. It’s kind of taken a backseat on the back-burner. I just have no time. I wish there was a way to have more hours in a day, especially during times that you really need it. I haven’t had the chance to plan out stuff I need to cook on the weekends, especially now that all weekends are filled to capacity with wedding stuff. I haven’t been in the mood either. I think the stress just piles on and you just don’t want something else to worry about. I don’t know why I get all nervous about how many posts I have scheduled out, but I have posts til end of May, but I still get mini panic attacks about not being further out. I know, I’m weird.

So, the other day, when Jason dropped me off at work, we noticed this HUGE, FAT hawk near the courtyard of my office. It was hobbling. I got all sad because when an animal hobbles, it’s usually cause he’s hurt or something. A hobbling hawk/bird means that it likely can’t fly, therefore, it’s going to die. So I was trying to think of who I could even call to tend to a hurt hawk..

That was when I got a text from Jason a couple minutes after I had walked into my office & thinking all the possibilities of how to get in touch with park services or something. Jason said: that “hobbling and hurt” hawk that you were upset about – he actually had just killed a bird and had it clasped between one of his claws so that’s why he was hobbling. He was hobbling to get to another location so he could eat it.

…………um, so much for me being sad and thinking of ways to save this hawk.

I wanted to drown my sadness with a couple of these oatmeal & chocolate cookie bars. It’s like an oatmeal cookie had a baby with a chocolate cookie. It’s the best of both worlds in an ooey-gooey bar form.

Yeah, take that sadness!

But poor birdy :( haha

Author: Julie Wampler

Recipe type: Dessert, Bar Cookies

Prep time:

Cook time:

Total time:

Serves: 1 9x13-inch pan

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• ⅓ cup milk (I used 2%)
• 2½ cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• For the filling:
• 1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk (I used Eagle Brand)
• ⅓ cup butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking pan with parchment paper so that it overhangs on both sides for easy removal
2. In a large bowl, add flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Then add in the eggs and vanilla extract and beat for 2 more minutes. Gently pour the milk in and beat until incorporated.
4. Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until all combined and well-incorporated. With the mixer on low, add the rolled oats. The mixture will be thick so if the stand mixer can't get it all, use a spatula to get it all incorporated.
5. In a saucepan over medium low heat, add all the ingredients of the filling to the pan. Once everything has melted together you can start assembling the bars.
6. Spread about ⅔ of the cookie mixture in the bottom of the baking pan (I used my hands and pressed it down). Then take the chocolate mixture and pour it over top of the cookie mixture. Take the remaining cookie mixture and drop it in small dough balls over the chocolate mixture (it's ok if it's not perfect, they bake out and spread).
7. Bake for 25 minutes. If the tops start to get overly brown, cover with foil and continue baking.
8. Let cool in baking pan COMPLETELY before you cut them into squares. Everything will be too gooey and loose if you don't let it set up.