The Kitchen Witch

The Best Oatmeal Bars in the World!!!!!

 

I love oatmeal cookies. I do confess though – I do not particularly like oatmeal-raisin cookies. Raisins are OK but I would rather use dried cranberries or cherries. Right now, I am totally and completely in love with dried cherries. An herbalist friend of mine suggested that I eat them to help ease my arthritis and a month ago, I happened to get a big bag of them at one of Lowell’s very generous food pantries. So naturally, I decided I would put them into some cookies.

Well – if you’re going to have cherries, you just have to have chocolate, don’t you? And personally – I don’t give a hang about cookies without a bit of crunch, so there’s walnuts in here too. I tried to form them into cookies but there was really too much going on – cherries, chocolate chips, chopped walnuts – so I took the easy route and put them into a greased 13×9 pan. And WOW. I shared then with the ladies in the rental office and ya know – I don’t want to brag but they raved! I had to print out the recipe! It made me feel really good.

I usually don’t make the same cookie twice in a row and I generally don’t make cookies in January anyway – after the excesses of the holidays – but I can easily justify these by saying they’re oatmeal and therefore they’re “good for you” and I’ll just spend an extra hour on the exercise bike (yeah, right)!

Here’s the recipe:

The Best Oatmeal Bars In The World !!!

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9×13 pan.

Cream: ½ butter

½ cup brown sugar, packed

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup honey

Combine & beat until smooth:

1 beaten egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk

Sift together & add to the above:

1 cup flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

When completely mixed & beaten smooth, add:

2 cups oats

Mix well.

Add: 12-ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

½ cup dried cherries

½ chopped walnuts

Mix well. Press into greased pan & baked for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.

Cut while still warm & then cut again when cool. These will keep for several weeks in a tightly-sealed container.

I cannot emphasize how yummy good these cookies are. Fabulous with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea. I think – although I haven’t tried it out and I swear I won’t – but I think they would be quite good with some vanilla ice cream.

And they are GOOD for you! Try them for yourself! Bon appetite and brightest blessings!