Chocolate Revel Bars

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Margaret, a very dear long-distance friend, recently sent me a lovely cookbook for my birthday. I have said before that "collection" cookbooks are some of my favorites because each person who contributes always gives their best, their favorite. I just love spending time looking through them because they reveal so much about the community that contributes to them. This one is especially lovely to look through because many of the dishes appear to be regional favorites. The book was published by St. Anthony Catholic Church in Mooretown, North Dakota, and many of the recipes, at first glance, appear to be ethnic -- German, French and Polish is my guess. I also noticed that a full third of the book is desserts -- those are my kind of people!

The first recipe that I chose to make, mostly because of ingredient availability (and a hankerin' for something chocolate) were the Chocolate Revel Bars. They also happen to be Margaret's sister's recipe! They were fabulous. I admit that I was somewhat stumped about halfway through the recipe, when I couldn't figure out what to do with the filling (I'm lost without pictures, folks!). But I remembered that I had seen this same recipe in one of my older Betty Crocker cookbooks. I checked and saw that I was supposed to melt them all together -- I'm a little thick sometimes.

This recipe makes a buttload of bars (pardon me, but it really is a unit of measure -- it's a lot). You may be tempted to hide them in the pantry and eat them for breakfast before the kids get up (even though they have three cups of oatmeal in them, they are not breakfast food). They are very rich, and I'm sure very fattening. So make sure you have someplace to take them. I wrapped a good half of the pan and sent them with Doug to work. I cut mine into 30 large bars, but you could easily get more than 50 if you cut them smaller.

Chocolate Revel Bars

1 c. butter or margarine (I used butter)
2 c. packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla
2-1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
3 c. oatmeal (I used quick-cooking rolled oats)
15 oz. sweetened condensed milk (my can was 14 oz.)
12-oz. package chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
2 T. butter
1/2 t. vanilla

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Mix in eggs and first measure of vanilla. Add flour, soda and salt. Stir in oatmeal and mix to combine.

In a microwave-safe bowl, combine 2 T. butter, sweetened condensed milk, and chocolate chips. Heat on high in microwave for a minute, remove and stir. Heat again, for 30 seconds at a time, until completely melted. (This step could also be done over low heat on the stove). Stir in second measure of vanilla.

Press two-thirds of the oat mixture into the bottom of a greased and floured 15 x 10 jelly roll pan. Spread chocolate mixture over the oat mixture. Using your fingers, dot remaining oat mixture over the chocolate (I think I probably used less than 2/3 on the bottom and I had an abundance of topping -- it was all good).
Bake in a 350 degree F oven about 20-25 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

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