Chocolate Chunk Oat Bars

These bars are very crisp and crumbly bars. They do become a bit softer in storage.  The flavor is a like a mild toffee, so that makes it go great with coffee. As an option to get a more pronounced caramel flavor, I use Colombian Brown sugar called Panela Redonda, and I substitute Palm Sugar for the granulated sugar. These products are a little difficult to work with but the resulting deepening of flavor is worth it to me. .

Ingredients

2 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup self-rising flour

½ cup oat bran or Scottish oatmeal

½ teaspoon baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

12-24 chocolate chunks

1/2 cup any puffed cereal (quinoa, millet)

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 ozs shortening

4 ozs butter

½ Granny Smith apple, peeled and cored, finely grated
1/4 cup walnuts (optional)

Directions

1.      Line a 9 by 13 inch baking pan with parchment paper so that there is overhang of paper on all sides.

2.      Stir the sugars, grated apple, vanilla, and water over low heat in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved. Simmer for 5 minutes then remove from heat and allow to cool.

3.      Mix the flours, 1 cup of oats, oat bran, salt and baking powder, walnuts (if using) butter and shortening in a food processor bowl. Pulse a couple of times until the mixture is the consistency of coarse meal, and starts to clump together.  

4.      Turn out into a mixing bowl. Add the remaining cup of oats and puffed cereal and mix well until the oats and millet are incorporated into the dough. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and mix. Knead a couple of times to form a solid dough.

5.      Turn the dough out into the baking pan and spread as evenly as possible, using the palm of your hand and a spatula moistened with oil or water. Place chocolate chunks across the top (visualize how you will score it in bars and place the chunks so that they fall within the cuts).

6.      Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and cut into bars with a sharp knife. Cool. Lift parchment paper out of pan and place on a cookie sheet. Separate the bars slightly.

Decrease the oven temperature to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, and bake for another 1 ½ hours. At the end of this time, turn off the oven but leave the bars in until the oven cools, and the cookies have dried out more. Store in an airtight container and try not to eat them all in one day!.