Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies. Yup.

It's been a while and I apologize, but I've had a miserable cold-and-fever combo — today I left the house for the first time in four days. When I clear the cloud out of my head long enough to remember to eat, I've been resorting to soup and frozen food, so I haven't been cooking a lot lately, and certainly nothing fancy.

I did make some of my favorite gift cookies for my coworkers last week, so I'll tell you about these today instead of giving you more details of my cooped-up life. In writing up these marvelous cookies, I realized that I tend to make a lot of really, really unhealthy food. Not quite as bad as Epic Meal Time, but if my boyfriend hangs around much longer, he's going to go the way of Paula Deen and get Type II diabetes.

In any case, you guys are going to want to hang around to see this recipe, if only to bookmark it and use it later as a birthday/holiday/just-because present. I've used them to pay my friends for helping me move, I've given my brother a batch for his birthday (he ate 20 for lunch. I'm still surprised he didn't keel over and die instantly), and I've made friends simply by offering them this cookie.

Now, I give this power to you.

Cream butter and brown and white sugar. We're all friends here.

Usually I advocate omitting the white sugar for just brown sugar, but in this case there's a good reason to use white sugar: We need the dough to not spread out too much.

Add eggs and vanilla and beat some more until mixed. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt, and slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mess.

I love my mixer so so much.

Add chocolate chips when the dough is mixed, and then pull out double-stuffed Oreos (or off-brand version thereof). Scoop a little over a tablespoon of dough and stick it to the bottom of the cookie, put another tablespoon of dough on top, and mush it around until it encases the entire Oreo in dough. The chocolate chips will tend to cluster at the top and bottom, not the sides because it's difficult to keep the chocolate chips there without a lot of cookie dough. Don't worry about this.

Try to keep most of the dough on the top or bottom so as the cookies bake, the dough doesn't spread out too much. At the same time, you don't want to put too little dough on the Oreo because it ruin the surprise and the the Oreo creme center will spill out onto the parchment.

Bake them in a 350 degree oven for about 13 minutes. Watch them very carefully because they can bake for less time depending on the oven. (If you overbake them, they'll just demand to be dipped in milk even more!)

It's really best to eat these cookies warm. If you're sharing, bring these cookies to wherever they're going without telling anyone what they are: When your friends bite into them, it will induce squealing or gasps of awe. My company even posted about them on our Twitter page.

Side note: I've made these cookies with peanut butter-filled Oreos and I highly recommend this method. I also encourage you to experiment: Oreo keeps coming out with more and more flavors, so the possibilities are getting more and more endless. Personally, I'd like to try using Double Triple Oreos, but honestly, I'm not ready to make my peace with the universe and have a heart attack quite yet.

My attempt at an artsy-fartsy shot. Not terrible, needs work.

Enjoy the cookies! Without further ado, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 ½ cups)
1 package Oreo cookies (double stuff)


To make:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Add in the eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Slowly add to the wet mixture and combine thoroughly.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Chill the dough for 15 minutes to make it easier to work with and to keep the dough from spreading when baking.
7. Using a cookie scoop place one scoop of dough on top of an Oreo cookie. Place another single scoop on the bottom of the Oreo to create a cookie sandwich. Seal the edges together to completely close in the Oreo.
8. Place the balls of cookie dough on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10 to 13 minutes.
9. Let cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

Seriously sinful gooey oatmeal bars

Side note: I took all the pictures for this when I was at my parents' and never got around to publishing them. Anyway, here's the post, a little belated but just as delicious!

Side note, part deux: If your New Year's resolution was to lose weight, back away from this blog post immediately. I won't even be hurt. Leave now before I introduce you to the most gloriously delicious bar cookie in my repetoire.

What's that, you're staying? Good.

While I was home my dad decided that he wanted to bake, then after I told him about these bar cookies, he basically cleared out and let me handle things. They're wonderful. I frequently make double or triple batches for events at Boyfriend's fraternity, and they go so fast you'd think I never made any at all.

The fun thing about cooking at home is that my mom has basically every cooking and baking tool you could think of, including (among other things) a strawberry corer and these adorable measuring spoons:

Precious! Mom found them at a garage sale, and I want to steal them. Anyway, down to business.

Mix brown sugar, oats, butter (lots of butter), baking soda, and flour together in a bowl:

Apply some dad-magic (or just stir it, if no dad is on hand):

And finally, use your fingers to press half the mixture into the bottom of a 9 by 13 inch pan:

There's no precision required here (or anywhere in this recipe), but it does help to make sure there are no cracks along the bottom. I didn't get all the corners covered (see the bottom left?), but that's okay.

Pop this in the oven for 10 minutes. When you pull it out, sprinkle anywhere between a cup and two cups of chocolate chips across the bottom, again trying to cover it as evenly as you can without stressing, then cover the entire thing with a cup of caramel sauce.

Have you had a heart attack yet?

Take the remaining oat mix and sprinkle it on top, then stick it back in the oven for 15 minutes. At this point it might be a little poofy, but just pull it out and don't worry about it.

My mother thinks this picture looks like a litter box. But I promise it's 10 ^1'000 more delicious than cat litter.

Now comes the hard part: Wait until the bars have cooled all the way until you slice them up and eat them. I tend to stick them in the freezer if I have space. It's probably not good for the chocolate, but then again, these bars don't last long — not even long enough for me to take a fancy picture of them to show off with. In any case, the bars should look like stratified, with a layer of cookie, a layer of chocolate and caramel, and another layer of cookie on top.

UPDATE: I found a picture of an old batch I made. And now I want more.

Enjoy.

Sinful Gooey Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients:

1.5 cups butter

1.5 cups brown sugar

2 cups oats

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

0.5 teaspoon salt

1 to 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup caramel sauce

To make:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. 

2. Combine butter, brown sugar, oats, flour, baking soda, and salt.

3. Press half this mixture into a 9 by 13 inch pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool slightly.

4. Sprinkle chocolate chips over crust.

5. Drizzle caramel sauce over chocolate chips and crust.

6. Crumble remaining oatmeal mixture on top and bake for 15 minutes.

7. Allow bars to cool before you scarf them, or stick them in the refrigerator to allow them to harden.