Oatmeal Carmelitas: Trying to live like a 20-something again

For the Tahoe group...EK, GC, CY, CJR, LR, JEL, HJL, SWC, PDC - anyone for some more?

When it was decided that a group would go up to Tahoe for a three day weekend, I was excited. After all, what could be more fun than hanging in a huge house with your closest friends and family? It was particularly exciting for me as we had decided that we would be cooking, staying in the huge house, and just mostly playing and spending time with one another. In the 15 plus years that the group has known one another, marriage and children have dramatically changed how we hang out. No longer are we able to stay up late and forget about sleep as now our children need to go to bed and need to go home. We aren't allowed to do things on a whim, as often times managing the children becomes a hurdle that is sometimes to hard too climb over.

This trip helped smooth those issues out as we stayed all together under one roof. We stayed up far too late laughing and playing Settlers of Catan together, as the kids were already tucked in bed upstairs. We laughed late at night, without worrying about getting home on time, as we just rolled into the beds at the house. We ate together, many meals and just giggled around the table and didn't have to worry about affecting our kids, as they were already fed and playing on their own in the next room. It was such a fabulous weekend and although I ended up incredibly sleep deprived, the opportunity to play as a young person again was wonderful. I'm still paying for it now, as the sleep deficit has completely caught up to me, but it is no matter. The time spent together, laughing until my gut split open was well worth it.

I made these Oatmeal Carmelitas specifically for this trip. I saw the recipe a few weeks back and thought that I would save this special bar for a special occasion - our group Tahoe trip. I wanted to make it for those people closest to me, as we retreated away from our daily life and acted like young twenty somethings again. They are completely yummy, fairly easy to make, and special enough to share.

There are lots of versions of this type of cookie, but I was excited by the ones at Dana Treat because the recipe didn't used evaporated skim milk or prepackaged caramels. Instead she made the sticky gooey filling with a mixture of cream and honey, which I thought was a stroke of genius. These hold up well and are great when you take them on trips away from your regular life.

Oatmeal Carmelitas (from Dana Treat)
adapted from With Love & Butter

makes 36 bars

1½ cups (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 cups flour
2 cups oats (quick or old-fashioned)
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1½ cups chocolate chips
½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1 cup honey
½ cup cream

Preheat oven to 375° with the rack in the center position. Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan.

Cream the butter and brown sugar together with an electric mixer. Add the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt and combine. Set aside 1/3 of the dough. Press the remaining dough evenly into the buttered baking pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes. The crust should be barely brown. Leave the oven on. Scatter the chocolate chips and walnuts over the hot crust.

Now blob the reserved dough as evenly as you can on top of the chocolate and nuts.

Combine the honey and cream. Heat in the microwave or on the stove until hot but not boiling.
Pour the honey cream sauce over the dough and bake 15 to 20 minutes. The bars will be done when they turn a uniformly rich golden color. Cool and cut.

Printable recipe