{RECIPE} Oatmeal Caramelitas and Raspberry Cream Cheese Bars

I know that I usually post Tasty Treat recipes on Thursdays ("usually" being a pretty loose term around here recently), but a few friends asked about a particular recipe I made yesterday, so I wanted to post it for them today. With Christmas less than a week away, people are buckling down with their baking and are in NEED of good recipes.

OK. So I kind of made this recipe up. Wait. That isn't completely true. I used a recipe that I already had and made a variation which I was really happy with. I'll share both with you today, posting the original recipe first, with the variation recipe (which people were asking for) second.

Here we go.

The first recipe is one I received from my husband's grandmother. She is an amazing cook/baker/kitchen extraordinaire. She made these little cookie bars once and I ate them until it made me sick. Then I ate some more. The recipe came from Grandma's sister, Margie. And it's awesome.

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Tasty Treat #1

Oatmeal Caramelita's

Crust:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1-2 cups of brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1-4 cup of butter, softened

Filling:

• 6 oz package (1 cup) of chocolate chips (I may have used a larger bag...ahem)
• 12 oz jar (1 cup) of caramel ice cream topping
• 1/2 cup of chopped nuts (I used almonds, but I think Grandma used pecans. Walnuts would be good too)
• 3 TBS flour

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2) Grease a 13x9-inch pan. Combine crust ingredients and press HALF of the mixture into pan. Bake 10 minutes.

3) Sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts.

4) Combine caramel topping and 3 TBS flour. Drizzle over chocolate chips and nuts.

5) Top with remaining crust mixture. Bake 18-22 minutes, until the topping is golden brown.

6) Refrigerate 1-2 hours and cut into bars.

ENJOY!

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Now when I made these at home for the first time, I couldn't stop eating them. Again. The crust was so tasty. And I couldn't help imagining that this crust would be good with raspberry jam instead of chocolate. So my mind began taking the recipe into a new direction. That is how I came up with the Raspberry Cream Cheese Bar variation that I will share below. Essentially, you are following steps #1, 2, 5 and 6 from above, with the variation coming into play in steps #3 and 4 (the filling).

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Tasty Treat #2

Steph's Raspberry Cream Cheese Bars

Crust:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1-2 cups of brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1-4 cup of butter, softened

Filling:

• 1 8oz package of cream cheese (I used low fat)
• 1 cup of confectioners sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 15-oz jar of Raspberry preserves (I used seedless)

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2) Grease a 13x9-inch pan. Combine crust ingredients and press HALF of the mixture into pan. Bake 10 minutes.

***VARIATION***

3) For filling, beat cream cheese, confectioners sugar and egg until creamy. Spread over crust.

4)Top with Raspberry Preserves (may be difficult to spread, but it's ok if it looks a bit messy).

5) Top with remaining crust mixture. Bake 18-22 minutes, until the topping is golden brown.

6) Refrigerate 1-2 hours and cut into bars.

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These tasty surprisingly like Entenmann's Raspberry Danish. Which I love. More of a crumbly texture, but DELICIOUS. Next time, I might heat the preserves in a pan until it is liquidy, so it makes for easier spreading. But...for now...this works fine!

So there you go - 2 more recipes to add to your holiday maddness! Have a good day!!