Strawberries and Cream Bars
Years ago, I fell in love with chocolate revel bars, a part-cookie and part-fudge delight. I found a decadent recipe in the Chocolate Collection cookbook that I still swear by to this day, full of oatmeal goodness and chocolate sin.
I’ve also long been in love of strawberries and sweet cream, so I combined the texture of one with the flavor of the other for a fudgy yet fruity treat.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided, softened
- 2 cups packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 cups uncooked old-fashioned oats
- 1 package (1.2 ounces) freeze-dried strawberries, divided
- 1 package (11 ounces) white chocolate chips
- 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
Preparation
- Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of a 9x13 baking dish with shortening or nonstick cooking spray.
- In a mixer, beat 1 cup butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Mix in vanilla
- Whisk together flour and baking soda, then gradually add to wet ingredients. Stir in oats until thoroughly coated.
- Evenly spread 3/4 of the oat batter into the prepared baking dish, pressing down with a lightly greased scraper. Then spread 3/4 of the freeze-dried strawberries evenly over the batter.
- Crush the remaining strawberries into small chunks and powder. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine and crushed strawberries, 2 tablespoons butter, white chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk. Melt over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until all ingredients are incorporated and smooth.
- Pour chocolate mixture over strawberry layer evenly. Dollop the top with remaining oat batter.
- Bake about 25 minutes, or until topping in lightly browned. Cool completely, then chill in the refrigerator until the chocolate layer hardens before slicing into bars.
Yields about 24 bars