mix, mix…stir, stir

Here is a great bar cookie that’s not sickly sweet, greasy, or flavorless. All problems I have had with other bar cookie recipes.  These would be a great bake sale item,  just look at all that chocolate!

The oatmeal in the dough seems to temper the sweetness along with the peanuts. There is just a hint of cinnamon dancing around in the background to add interest. The chocolate center layer is fudgy and soft and remains a distinct chocolate zone rather than melting into the dough which gives a great visual and textural contrast to the cookies. I omitted the raisins to please the non-raisin eaters and used a slightly darker chocolate than standard chocolate chips, but otherwise knocked this recipe out just as Dorie instructed.

My friend Lee and I whipped these up after dinner one night in about 15 minutes, but because they are thick bars they take a long time to cool. We couldn’t stand to wait and dug in before the thick chocolate layer had become structurally sound and ended up with a pile of cookie bar pieces on each plate rather than intact cookies; tasty nonetheless. Once cooled, they cut beautifully and hold really well. We ate the last ones three days later and they were just as good as they were on the first day.

 I lined the pan with a parchment sling for easy removal rather than buttering it. If you haven’t use parchment paper I encourage you to pick up a roll and give it a try. I line cake pans, loaf pans, cookie sheets, really anything I bake that needs to be removed from what it’s baking in or on gets parchment.  To make a sling, just cut the paper so that two of the sides extend beyond the height of the pan walls. This way it’s easy to grab the parchment and lift the entire baked good out of the pan for easy cutting.

Lillian of Confectiona’s Realm picked the recipe this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie reicpe and has it posted on her blog if you would like to make it yourself.

Over 350 baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours . 109 recipes completed 112 to go!