Try this Oat Fudge Bars – Gluten-Free recipe, or contribute your own.
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
- 3 cups large flake old fashioned oats
- 2 cups oat flour (alternately use all-purpose flour)
- 3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 300 ml can eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
- 12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Carbohydrate 14.1801380208383 g
- Cholesterol 42.3501302260689 mg
- Fat 15.9127250587742 g
- Fiber 0 g
- Protein 0.514817239653451 g
- Saturated Fat 10.0767322959041 g
- Serving Size 1 1 -28 square (74g)
- Sodium 6221.70054852461 mg
- Sugar 14.1801380208383 g
- Trans Fat 1.11231034421838 g
- Calories 197 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a 8 x 12 baking dish with parchment paper
- In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, add butter and sugar and beat together on medium speed until well blended and creamy. Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy.
- In a medium sized bowl stir together oats and oat flour, baking soda and salt.
- Add oat mixture to butter and eggs mixture and beat together until well combined and it has formed a sticky dough.
- Reserve ⅓ of the dough and set aside. Press the remaining dough into the bottom of the baking dish. Dampen your hands with a bit of water to help press the dough flat into the baking dish. This is sticky dough. Press the dough slightly up the sides of the dish to make a bit of a ridge to catch the fudge topping
- To make the fudge: in a small sauce pan combine Eagle Brand condensed milk and chocolate chips over medium low heat. Stir until chocolate chips have melted and mixture is smooth and creamy. Remove from heat and stir in the tablespoon of butter and the vanilla.
- Evenly spread the fudge over top of the dough in the baking dish. Try to leave a half inch or so around the sides.
- Take small clumps of the dough previously set aside and press into flat shapes and lay on top of the fudge. Don't worry about covering the entire top, you want to see some fudge peaking through.
- Bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes. The oats on top should be slightly golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting into squares.
Visual cues remain the single most reliable metric for determining when oat-based baked goods have crossed the threshold from underbaked to dry, entirely eliminating the need for inserted probes or guesswork. When baking in a standard 8-by-12-inch pan, heat distribution relies heavily on the thermal mass of the metal or glass vessel, meaning the edges will naturally set faster than the center due to direct contact with the conductive walls. The surface of the oats on top must turn a light, distinct golden brown, signaling that the starches have fully gelatinized and the moisture has sufficiently evaporated from the crumb structure. Because residual heat continues the baking process after removal from the 350-degree oven, pulling the pan precisely at the twenty-minute mark prevents the condensed milk and chocolate fudge layer from tightening into a rigid, hard candy consistency. Working in a compact kitchen often means managing appliances that run slightly hot, making this visual surveillance far safer than trusting a kitchen timer alone.
Chemical interactions between the dairy proteins, sugars, and fats dictate both the structural integrity and the rich mouthfeel of the final product. Sweetened condensed milk contains reduced milk solids and high sugar concentrations that elevate the boiling point of the fudge mixture, allowing the chocolate chips to melt into a stable emulsion without seizing or graining from localized overheating. Butter provides water and milk solids that emulsify with the sugars during creaming, creating microscopic air pockets that expand under heat and give the oat flour matrix its necessary lift alongside the baking soda. Salt counters the intense sweetness of the sugar and dairy by suppressing sweet receptor cells on the tongue, which inadvertently brings forward the earthy, toasted notes of the large flake oats. Allowing the baked squares to cool completely on a wire rack permits the saturated fats in the butter and chocolate to recrystallize fully, transforming a messy, molten pan into clean, sliceable portions.
