Thanks to Lillian of Confectiona's Realm for her Tuesdays with Dorie pick of Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars, found on pages 114-115 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours cookbook. No, Lillian, really, thanks...I am probably going to be making these regularly from now until the kid leaves for college, and then probably sending care packages of them to him there. He loved them THAT much. He could barely stop eating them to pose for a photo this week.
I made a full batch, but half of it went down to the swim meet for the hospitality room this past weekend, leaving half for Matt and Mark here at the house. There have been several requests in the last couple of days that I make them again, like today or tomorrow. I'm pretty sure that this is one of the desserts that disappeared the quickest.
A few of us baked them together on Twitter last week, debating the pros and cons of subbing in this or that for different kinds of nuts or the value of leaving the raisins in or subbing them out...but I made them EXACTLY as Dorie said to make them for the exact amount of time, etc. and they were perfect.
The pan with all the ingredients in it weighed a lot, because there was a lot in these: the regular cookie-making suspects and then oatmeal, chocolate, raisins, and lots and lots of peanuts.
There are three layers, a bottom crust, a fudgy middle crust, and then more of the bottom crust, but this time scattered on top. A very big hit, definitely Top 5 for them.
I think I may have stumbled upon the mystery to the perplexing issue of whether they like nuts IN things or not. I believe the answer lies in the chocolate factor, i.e. if the recipe includes chocolate, they like nuts IN things, however, if the recipe does not include chocolate, they don't like nuts IN things. I'm going to test this theory over time, but I do believe I have it nailed.
Next week: Steph from Obsessed with Baking has chosen Cocoa-Nana Bread, found on pages 46. TWD blogroll found here.