Saturday, June 3, 2017 – Yikes no chocolate on the island
When you live on an older sailboat in warmer climates, the last thing you want to do is heat up the cabin with the oven to bake cookies or some other sweets! I am a big fan of no bake cookie bars. I have a few recipes that are my go to’s. I have mentioned before my husband is no a sweets eater but even he likes these bars! Give them a try and by the way, the freeze well so keep out a few for today and then freeze the rest for emergency situations like when you forget to buy chocolate on your one day off the island!
Chocolate Oatmeal Bars – No Bake!!!!
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups old fashioned oats
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ cups chopped walnuts (optional)
1 cup dark chocolate chips
¾ cup chunky peanut butter
Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper.
In a saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar together until butter is completely melted and sugar is well dissolved, stirring frequently. Mix in oats, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Cook over medium heat and stir constantly for 4-5 minutes. If you are adding walnuts, mix in at the last minute.
Pour half of the oat mixture into the parchment lined pan and press down to an even layer
In microwavable bowl, melt the chocolate chips and peanut butter together until well blended, usually at 30 second increments. Pour about 4/5’s of the melted mixture over the pressed down oat mixture. Then add the rest of the oat mixture and press down firmly.
To drizzle melted chocolate or icing, I usually use a baggie or Ziploc bag. I put the melted mixture into the baggie and squeeze to one bottom corner of the bag. Twist the bag close so no mixture escapes the top of the bag and snip a very small corner of the bag where the melted chocolate is and slowly pipe the chocolate over the top of the oat mixture. No need for fancy equipment when baking most of the time!
Refrigerate the pan for about 4 hours until set. Pull the parchment paper out of pan and place on cutting surface. Cut cookies into 1 inch squares and then indulge. Absolutely the best with a cup of tea on a windy cold day on an island out in Sheepscot Bay.
