One of the most frivolous things I have missed during this covid-19 pandemic of self-isolation (aside from my mistress, Homesense) has been Starbucks. Our local drive-thru IS open, but I haven’t been leaving the house for anything but groceries. I have been craving these oat fudge bars SO BAD, but ya know – don’t feel like furthering the contagion, so I decided to attempt my own. I have seen a few of these recipes floating around, but this is my adapted version.
Oat Fudge Bars (Starbucks Dupe)
Ooeey, gooey, delicious fudge-y morsels better than the real thing, They freeze wonderfully too.
Ingredients
Crust
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar (packed)
- 1 cup butter (you can sub margarine with no issues - I have made it both ways and I don't notice any difference)
- 2 cups flour
- 3 cups rolled oats (quick oats work just as well too)
- 1 tsp baking soda
Fudge
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk (cans are 300ml – you can basically sub a cup of any “milk” here, just know we are using the above because we want it to firm up and get fudgy)
- 2 cups milk chocolate chips (can substitute semi-sweet chips)
- ½ cup butter (again you can substitute margarine easily here)
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Next, get your 9×13 pan and line with parchment paper. NO, you don’t need to do this, but it makes cleanup approximately 80x easier.
- Cream together the first 4 ingredients in the crust – nice and smooth and light brown is what you want. I used my Kitchenaid Mixer and it worked perfectly.
- Then add in the flour, oats, and baking soda. It will look sorta like cookie dough.
- Take about ⅔ of that mixture and pack it into your parchment papered pan. You want it nice and even, spread it out to the corners. Almost like you’re doing a cheesecake crust, except you can use your hands. Save the remainder for now.
- On the stove, melt your 4 fudge ingredients. Pay attention, don’t let them burn. Keep stirring, on low and slow heat, until it is all melted. It will pull away from the sides of the pot, yes this is normal.
- Pour that melted fudge overtop the crust. Smooth it all out, corner to corner and end to end.
- Now, remember that leftover crust “dough”? Take chunks of it in your hand, smoosh it out like you’re making a patty cake for a baby, and put it on top. You don’t need them all to touch, but they will crisp up – so you want them on the thinner side or they will be quite difficult to cut. Do this with the remainder of the dough until the top is covered with these patty cakes. There will be gaps, this is intentional.
- Pop in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove and cool. DO NOT try to cut or lift parchment paper tray of oat bars out until fully cooled. It will just be a gigantic mess. I know this is hard, but do not do it. You will have multiple regrets if you try this.
- Once fully cooled (I’m talking at least an hour…) – securely lift both sides of the parchment paper and gently transfer tray of oat fudge bars to a cutting board.
- Cut into the size of chunks you feel necessary to satiate you and enjoy.
Notes
Note: YES – you can freeze these. A tray makes an average of 24 squares, so you can put them in a container, cover with parchment paper, lid on, and freeze for up to 6 months.