Oatmeal Fudge Bars #recipe and a giveaway from Molly MacRae

 

A simple treat with simple ingredients that lets you feel decadent – a pan of these tasty things was perfect for this week when we had so many afternoons with constant thunder. The way to deal with that kind of weather is to kick back with a book, a warm drink, and an oatmeal fudge bar.

Read on for your chance to win an advance reading copy of There’ll Be Shell to Pay, book 2 in the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries.

 

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Adapted from Sweet Tooth by Sarah Fennel

 

Ingredients for the oat layer

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

Ingredients for the fudge layer

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line and 8 x 8-inch baking pan with parchment paper on all sides. Clipping the parchment in place helps a lot when spreading the bottom oat layer. I took the clips off before baking.

To make the oat layer:

In a large bowl, combine butter and both sugars and cream together until light and fluffy.

Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Add flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.

To make the fudge layer:

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and butter. Stir frequently, as mixture cooks, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Mixture will be glossy and thick. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and salt.

Press half of the oat mixture evenly into a thin layer in the bottom of the prepared pan.

Pour the fudge over the oat layer, spreading evenly with a spatula. With your fingers, crumble the remaining oat mixture over the fudge layer, leaving some areas of fudge uncovered.

Bake until the bars are lightly golden brown and a butter knife inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let bars cool completely in the pan on a rack. Use the parchment to lift the bars from the pan onto a cutting board. Cut into 16 pieces.

 

What’s your favorite treat when you curl up and read? 

Let me know in the comments and you might win an advance reading copy of There’ll Be Shell to Pay. The winner will be chosen, at random, at noon on 5/27/25.

 

Coming in June 2025!

There’ll be Shell to Pay

Haunted Shell Shop book 2 

When she’s not selling seashells by the North Carolina seashore from her shell shop, Maureen Nash is a crime-solving sleuth with a ghost pirate for a supernatural sidekick . . .

Maureen is still getting used to life on Ocracoke Island, learning how to play the “shell game” of her business—and ghost whispering with the spirit of Emrys Lloyd, the eighteenth-century Welsh pirate who haunts her shop, The Moon Shell. The spectral buccaneer has unburied a treasure hidden in the shop’s attic that turns out to be antique shell art stolen from Maureen’s late husband’s family years ago.

Victor “Shelly” Sullivan and his wife Lenrose visit the shop and specifically inquire about these rare items. Not only is it suspicious that this shell collector should arrive around the time Maureen found the art, but Emrys insists that Sullivan’s wife is an imposter because Lenrose is dead. A woman’s corpse the police have been unable to identify was discovered by the Fig Ladies, a group who formed an online fig appreciation society. They’re meeting on Ocracoke for the first time in person and count Lenrose among their number, so the woman can’t possibly be dead.

But Lenrose’s behavior doesn’t quite match the person the Fig Ladies interacted with online. Now, Maureen and Emrys—with assistance from the Fig Ladies—must prove the real Lenrose is dead and unmask her mysterious pretender before a desperate murderer strikes again . . .

 

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Instagram or Bluesky.