Diamond's Nutty Chocolate Caramel Bars

The other day, I was getting some water out of our water filter, and was thinking about how long it'd been since I'd posted a recipe on this blog.  I don't currently have a set schedule to post on here and basically just post whenever I'm feeling creative in the kitchen.  As I stood drinking my water, I noticed that next to the water filter was a bag of Diamond walnuts.  They had been in our freezer for the longest time and I finally had to take them out to make room for food that actually needs to be frozen, you know, like ice cream.  On the back of the bag I saw a couple recipes.  The bag itself was about half empty and so had been rolled down and clothes pinned (yep, no actual food bag clips for us) to ensure freshness.  Well, one of the recipes caught my eye (words like chocolate and caramel tend to stick out to me), and I unrolled the rest of the bag to see what this recipe was all about.  I'm normally not a fan of nuts in my desserts, but I decided to test this recipe out.  Yummy is all I have to say.

Begin by combining flour, oats, brown sugar, soda and salt.  I almost forgot to add the salt.  I thought this first mixture looked a bit like horse feed.  Don't worry, it gets better.

 Then you add melted butter to it.  Now it really looks like horse feed.

 That mixture gets pressed into an ungreased 9X13 pan and baked for 15 minutes.  While that was baking, I prepared the next ingredients: chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, a cup of the above crumb mixture and caramel sauce.

 Notice the color of the caramel sauce in the above picture.  Now look at it below.  No, that's not a camera or lighting problem.  You add 1/3 cup of flour to the caramel sauce.  My caramel sauce (which was really a butterscotch/caramel sauce), had been in the fridge, so I nuked it about 30 seconds to get it to a runnier consistency.

 When the crust comes out of the oven, you sprinkle the chocolate chips and the walnuts over it.

 Then the caramel sauce.

 Then the rest of the crumb mixture.

 Throw it back in the oven for 20-25 minutes and you get this.  I deem this a healthy dessert because 1) it's got oats in it and 2) it's got nuts in it.  So feel good about yourself when you eat it.  Have it for breakfast!  Have it for dinner!  Most of all, enjoy it!

Diamond's Nutty Chocolate Caramel Bars
(Makes 2 and 1/2 dozen bars)  <---Really, that depends on how big/small you cut the pieces.

2 and 1/3 c. flour, divided
2 c. old fashioned oats
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. melted butter
2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 and 1/2 c. Diamond walnuts, chopped
1 c. (12.25 oz. jar) caramel ice cream topping

Combine 2 cups flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.  Add butter; stir until all ingredients are moistened.  Reserve 1 cup crumb mixture; press remaining mixture into bottom of ungreased 9X13 inch baking pan.  Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove from oven; sprinkle with morsels and walnuts.  Combine caramel topping and remaining 1/3 cup flour in small bowl; drizzle over base.  Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.  Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes more or until browned.  Cool in pan.  Cut as big of pieces as you want.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

These cookies have long time been one of my absolute favorites, yet I can't believe that I'd never made them before.  In my hometown, there is a fabulous cookie place called The Cookie Tree.  They make those big soft cookies that I can never seem to duplicate at home.  My favorite from The Cookie Tree was the chocolate crinkle w/no nuts.  I'm not a fan of nuts in baked goods.  They're delicious by themselves, but I just don't care for them in my delectable foods.  The Cookie Tree also has this promotion where if you get pictures of their cookies in far away places and then submit that picture to them, you get a dozen free cookies.  My mom sent me a dozen of these chocolate crinkle cookies to me while I was serving a mission for my church in Taiwan.  Then when she came to visit me at the end of my mission, she brought another dozen.  I know we got pictures of them in Taiwan, but I don't know that we ever submitted those pictures.  Too late?  Mom!  Get on it!

Anyhow, on with the recipe.  I got the recipe for these chocolate crinkles here.  Be careful though because the recipe listed at that site is for 6 dozen cookies.  Ok, maybe "be careful" is the wrong phrase. I mean, who wouldn't want 6 dozen of these cookies?  I decided to halve the recipe.  I knew that having that many cookies around here could be dangerous.  Halving the recipe should have left me with 3 dozen cookies, right?  Somehow I barely got 2 dozen.  And this is not the type of cookie dough I am likely to snack on either.  Maybe I made them too big.  Here it goes:

Cream together the following:

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. oil

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

It will look like what you see below.  And yes, I do all this by hand.  We're supposed to get a Bosch soon.

And then add in the following:

1 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

(The recipe at Allrecipes.com suggests mixing the dry ingredients together first before adding them to the wet ingredients.  That's not something I do.  You may do as you wish.)

 After you mix in the dry stuff, you'll get a consistency almost like thick cake batter.  Really thick cake batter.

Usually when I bake or cook, I've got my little daughter hanging on my leg.  I decided to give her some toys to play with while I did this recipe and it kept her entertained for a good little bit.

Then you chill the dough for a good 4 hours.  I transferred the dough to a smaller bowl so it wouldn't take up as much room in my fridge.  I ended up chilling the dough for 24 hours too.  By the time the initial 4 hours was up, it was late and I was too tired.

 After a good chill, the dough is harder and moldable with your hands.  Take spoonfuls of the dough, roll them in balls and then in powdered sugar.  

 Place on a lined cookie sheet.

 Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350.  

 Cookies as far as the eye can see!  Yummy!

Ok, so here's the recipe again, not all broken up by pictures:

Cream together:
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. oil
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Add in:
1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Chill dough for at least 4 hours in the fridge.  After done chilling, preheat oven to 350.  Roll dough into balls and then in powdered sugar.  Place on a lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

We're taking a road trip this weekend so I'm excited to have these with us!  Enjoy!  Oh, and choc it up!