Roseyland

So I’ve had a new kitchen for over a month now and I figured that I should cook something. Something that requires more than the microwave. Also, I have this work thing that requires me to bring food. I have a love/hate relationship with those work things that require bringing food. On one hand there is lots of free tasty food, and on the other there is the requirement to bring food. I like cooking though. Mostly I like watching The Food Channel, but real life cooking is fun too. I love taking raw ingredients and turning them into some completely new and hopefully delicious. I also like algorithms, and recipes are algorithms. Today we are making oatmeal fudge bars, the ingredients are:

• 2 cups brown sugar
• 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 and 1/2 cups biscuit mix
• 3 cups oatmeal
• One 12 ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• One 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Here are the ingredients as they would appear if they were sitting on the counter in my kitchen.

First, mix the brown sugar, 3/4 cup butter, eggs, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. This goes better if you let the butter soften up first. In a separate bowl, mix together the biscuit mix and oatmeal. Then stir the oatmeal mixture into the eggs and sugar mixture. Do not try to mix everything together all at once. If you do, the oatmeal might soak up the vanilla extract and prevent it from being properly distributed. Don’t do it. This is what is should look like when you are done.

A little diversion here. This is what my workspace looks like when I am cooking. Note that I have one mixing bowl just for trash and a plate for setting things on. This is as messy as I get. I do not like messes. I am just a tad anal. This is odd, because I’m not a clean freak, just a neat freak. Go figure.

Now press approximately two thirds of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. This will be the base of the bars, and it should look like this.

Now for the fudge. Add the chocolate chips, condensed milk, 2 tablespoons butter, and salt to a sauce pan and heat over low heat. I had to use medium low heat, just don’t get too hot, or you will burn the chocolate. Stir continuously until the chips are melted and the mixture is smooth. Then stir in 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. You could also stir in 1 cup of chopped walnuts at this point, but I have deep philosophical objections to nuts in my dessert food.

Now spread the chocolate on top of the oatmeal in the 9 x 13 inch pan. You need to be a little quick here, because as the chocolate cools, it becomes less spreadable. This is what it should look like.

Now crumble the remaining oatmeal mixture on top of the chocolate. Like so.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. When the oatmeal turns golden brown, they are done. Mine took 25 minutes give or take 17 seconds. See the picture below? This is why I don’t cook more often. Just looking at a picture of a mess like this gives me anxiety. I had this all cleaned up with everything washed, dried, and put away before the oatmeal fudge bars were finished baking.

Here is what they looked like when I took them out of the oven.

This is what they look like if you cut into them while they are still warm. They are fricken delicious at this point. It’s like some type of warm chocolate fudge cobbler.

You have to let them cool for a couple hours before you can cut them into bar form. This is what a cooled oatmeal fudge bar looks like.

This is one of my favorite recipes ever. In fact, I resist making them, because I know that I will eat far to many of them. The pictures make it look like there is much more oatmeal than fudge, but it is a good mixture, I promise. The chocolate stays gooey and it is very sweet. So sweet that by itself it would be too much, but the oatmeal balances it all out. Okay, that is all. Soon I will be baking pumpkin cookies. You will love them too, unless you don’t like pumpkin, then less love.