Dulce De Leche Oatmeal Bar

When Valli announced about the A-Z mega marathon, I right away knew that this was a perfect opportunity for me to clean up my bookmark list and cook from it. Over the couple of years of blogging, I have bookmarked several recipes from fellow bloggers to try. Some recipes are so amazing that as soon as I see them, I want to make them. Dulce De Leche oatmeal bar is one such recipe that I chose to make today for the dish beginning with alphabet D.

This is the first time, I have used dulce de leche and in spite of it being quite expensive, I will be using it more often. The flavor of these bars is so simple and it requires only 5 ingredients to make them. The shelf life of the bar is pretty amazing. I had these bars stored in 2 different boxes and I had them on the counter top. I had entirely forgotten about one of the boxes for about 2 weeks and when I opened it to check, they were perfectly fine. We still relished it after 3 weeks and it was perfectly delicious.

When you are in mood for one of those desserts that you can chew slowly and enjoy, then this is the one. The caramel layer gives the bar a very chewy texture in the middle and the bottom crust is an oatmeal cookie dough layer, topped with crumbles cookie dough. I got this recipe from Roxana’s Home baking.

Preparation time – 10 mins
Cooking time – 1 hr
Difficulty level – easy

A-Z Marathon – Alphabet D
Category – Baked

Ingredients to make Dulce De Leche Oatmeal Bar – (Makes around 24 bars)

• All purpose flour – 1 ½ cups
• Rolled oats – 1 ½ cups
• Brown sugar – 1 cup
• Cold butter (diced) – 1 cup
• Dulce de leche – 1 can (380 gms)
• Salt – a pinch

Procedure –

• Heat the oven to 350 F. Prepare an 11 x 9 baking dish by layering it with parchment paper.
• In a mixer or a food processor, add all the ingredients except the dulce de leche and mix it until it comes together as dough.

• Remove half a cup of this dough and wrap it tightly in a plastic wrap and keep it in the freezer.

• Drop the remaining dough into the prepared pan and press it evenly as the base layer. Make sure you use a flat container to help you press it out evenly.

• Bake this for 20 mins.
• In the meantime, add the dulce de leche to a sauce pan and heat it gently until it melts. Be sure to stir it constantly.

• Take the pan from the oven after 20 mins and carefully pour the melted caramel sauce evenly over it.

• Now remove the frozen dough from the freezer and grate it evenly over the caramel sauce.

• Return this to the oven and bake for 30 more minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

• Remove the pan out and let it cool entirely. Then slice them into bars and enjoy the Dulce De Leche Oatmeal bar!