No-bake Chocolate Oatmeal Bars

In my Christmas Pinwheel Cookies post, I promised that I would share a few recipes, and quite a few people seemed to be interested in these no-bake bars.

In December, I had the wonderful opportunity to conduct a small 2 hour workshop on desserts. It was my first time teaching cooking/baking, and I was really nervous! But by God's grace, it went very well, and the ladies who attended said they had a great time. They were a great group and had a lot of questions and were very interactive and encouraging!

I made two recipes that morning - first, my favorite carrot cupcakes with a coconut milk frosting. Somehow, after fruit cake, I tend to associate carrot cake with Christmas because of the wonderful aroma of nutmeg and cinnamon that fills the house when the cakes are baking. At the workshop, all of us had a lot of fun making and frosting the cupcakes, and then of course, eating the cupcakes. They were yummy!

Next, I thought we would do a no-bake recipe in case there were participants who didn't have ovens at home. So, after scouring the internet and looking at a LOT of recipes, I settled on this one I found on Allrecipes. It was quite a hit - I mean with chocolate and peanut butter, how bad can it be! That being said - I think nothing can beat a baked bar or cookie! I would make these only if I didn't have access to an oven. In that situation, these would be a treat!

As I mentioned in my other post, I don't have very good pictures for these posts. I was so busy with planning, packing and preparing for the workshop that I just didn't have the time to make an effort to get good pictures!

No-bake Chocolate Oatmeal Bars
Adapted from Allrecipes.com
Ingredients
1 scant cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups oatmeal
3/4 cup chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate)
1/3 cup peanut butter
A large pinch of salt

Method

1. Grease a 9x9 inch square pan.
2. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat.
3. Stir in the sugar, golden syrup and vanilla. Mix in the oats & cinnamon.
4. Cook over low heat 2 to 3 minutes, or until ingredients are well blended.
5. Press half of mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Reserve the other half for topping.
6. Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently until smooth. Add in the pinch of salt and stir well to combine.
7. Pour the chocolate mixture over the crust in the pan, and spread evenly with a knife or the back of a spoon.
8. Crumble the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate layer, pressing in gently.
9. Cover, and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
10. Bring to room temperature before cutting into bars.

The only 'tip' I would have in terms of this recipe is, don't add a tightly packed cup of butter. This can make the oatmeal layers really greasy. It happened to one of the batches I made, and it is not pleasant. The next time around, I used one scant cup of cubed butter, and it turned out great.

On a different note -  thanks to all those who wrote to me welcoming me back to the blogosphere! :) My wonderful food blogger friends and community sure know how to make me feel good! :) Thanks, all!

I am so glad to be back and blogging again! I've missed it so much, and I have SO loved catching up on all my favorite blogs over these last few days. If I still haven't gotten around to visiting you and dropping you a note, I promise I will soon! Have a wonderful week! :)