Better than Birthday Cake: Revel Bars

It was my son's birthday yesterday. He requested these instead of cake. A fellow after my own heart.

Revel Bars (taken from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook...with a bit of tweaking)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine (I did half and half)

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

3 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I prefer half semi/half milk)

1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (low-fat okay too)

2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

Cookie dough: Set aside 2 Tablespoons butter. In large mixing bowl beat butter with electric mixer for about 30 seconds (till it's light and fluffy). Add in sugar and baking soda. When that is mixed, add in eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in all of flour, and then oatmeal. Dough should be slightly stiff (if it is extra sticky or runny add more flour). The recipe doesn't call for it, but we like to add 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add it at the same time you add the flour.

Filling: in a medium saucepan combine the 2 tablespoons leftover butter, chocolate chips and the condensed milk. Cook over low heat until the chocolate melts, stirring occasionally. (or heat in microwave at 50% power for 30 seconds, stir, and then at 15 second intervals until chocolate is melted). Stir in vanilla (and nuts if you're a nut fan, which we are not). (I forgot the vanilla this last time and it tasted good anyway, so in my opinion, the vanilla is optional).

Press 2/3 of the dough into a 15x10x1" pan. (We don't own one of these so I used a 9x13" pan, and a small 4x6" baking dish. Another option is to use a jelly-roll pan, and only press dough into 2/3 of the pan). Pour the chocolate filling over the pressed cookie dough, and spread around to cover every inch - after all, chocolate is what it is all about. Take the remaining 1/3 part of the cookie dough, and "dot" it on top of the chocolate filling. You should be able to see the chocolate between the "dots" of dough. I found it easiest to get a piece of plastic wrap, and then take a spoonful of the dough, place it on the plastic, and smash it flat with my hand, and then place on the dough. The other option is to just drop small spoonfuls onto the dough. (I don't like this method because it is hard to get it to bake evenly).

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until the top of the cookie dough looks lightly browned. Cool, and cut into bars. Or decorate for a birthday. Either or :) Most of all, enjoy!