Childhood memories often include nostalgically remembered sweets. Whether those candies, cookies, and ice cream would taste as wonderful to an adult palate isn’t important. It’s the happiness those treats produced that creates such fond memories. Some commercially produced snacks continue to create cravings for generations. Oreo’s are 102 years old. M and M’s have been around for 73 years. When it was announced in 2012 that Twinkies in the U.S. would no longer be made after 82 years in production, hoarding and near hysteria ensued. A year later, a new company took over Twinkie production to the joy and relief of fans.
Often old favorites are not available. Some are no longer made. Others might be regional delicacies and not available where you live as an adult. The ice cream truck of my New York youth was the Good Humor man. Good Humor isn’t available in St. Louis, though a generic ice cream truck broadcasting annoying music does circle our neighborhood in the summer. In parts of the country where Good Humor is sold, my childhood favorite, Strawberry Shortcake bars, still exist. For some reason they don’t taste quite as wonderful as I remember. That doesn’t stop me from getting one whenever we travel to New York. Just looking at them in the freezer case makes me smile.
Butterscotch is a childhood memory flavor for me. My father liked butterscotch. I remember that when I was elementary school age, he would periodically bringing home little, yellow mesh bags of hard butterscotch candies wrapped in gold foil. The little rectangles of candy had a sweet, warm, buttery flavor. They tasted like comfort. I have no idea where these butterscotch sweets came from or even who made them. My father is no longer around to ask. My mother remembers the candy, but not any more details than I remember. Google image searches have been unsuccessful. These particular candies will have to remain a mystery, though I know they were the beginning of my love of butterscotch.
Butterscotch Oatmeal Bars are chewy bars with a crunchy topping. They are full of chewy oatmeal with sweet, buttery butterscotch flavor. The top of the bars is sprinkled with chopped crunchy oatmeal cookies. For ease, I used store bought oatmeal cookies, but homemade cookies could certainly be used.
I adapted this desert safe recipe from a recipe created by the Nestle Test Kitchens especially for military care packages. The ingredients should hold up well to the extreme summer desert heat and the bars should remain chewy and delicious for at least 10 days. The comforting flavor of butterscotch is just right for a care package treat!
Butterscotch Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup butter flavored vegetable shortening Crisco
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups quick oats
- 1 2/3 cups butterscotch chips
- 1 ½ cups coarsely chopped crunchy oatmeal cookies
Directions
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Preheat oven to 375˚F. Lightly grease a 9”x 9” pan with vegetable shortening.
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In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
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In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together shortening, sugar, eggs and egg yolk, water, and vanilla.
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Slowly add in flour mixture until combined.
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Stir in the oats.
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Place butterscotch chips in a microwave safe bowl and melt in the microwave at 50% power for 1 minute. Stir. If not completely melted, return to the microwave for 20 second intervals, alternately zapping and stirring, until smooth.
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Add the melted butterscotch to the batter and stir to combine.
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Spread the batter into the prepared pan, then sprinkle with chopped oatmeal cookies. Using the palm of your hand, gently press the cookie bits into the batter.
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Bake for 20-25 minutes. The top will be set firmly and a toothpick can be used to check for doneness.
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Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into bars.
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Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 10 days.
Packing Tips
Double wrap bars individually or in pairs in plastic wrap before placing in airtight containers or ziplock bags. For longer storage or shipping, I recommend not cutting into individual bars, but wrapping the entire square. Wrapping the entire pan of butterscotch oatmeal bars without cutting will preserve moisture and keep the bars chewy for longer.
They look stunning! 🙂 x
Thanks, Marisa! In order to make these desert safe, I have to use granulated sugar as a sweetener (low moisture). I have plans for some honey sweetened, grain free treats when the cooler weather gets here, that I think will fit well in your “I Quit Sugar” lifestyle!
mmmmm I love how buttery they sound! And I love that I could send them down to my mom in Florida and they won’t melt or dry out before they get there! 😀 Great recipe, Wendy!
Thanks, Jess! These bars would be great Florida care package goodies! It made me smile to think of the reversed roles of the baking-blogging daughter sending a package of goodies to their mom. 🙂
Butterscotch is one of those flavors that I had always liked enough but didn’t really come to appreciate until I got older! These bars look delicious – love all the oats!!
Thanks, Ashley! The toasty butterscotch and the chewy oats are made for each other!
You are so right about nostalgic treats. I have a million of them…things like Smarties (the chocolate kind that are like M&Ms) in the tube that I’d rattle, Toblerone, and butter cookies from those blue tins I enjoyed in Hong Kong as a child. There’s ice cream with fudge on the bottom in a cup from the corner deli…I could go on and on. I’m so glad these bars not only sound/look delicious but they conjure up your dad and good memories.
Did your blue tin of butter cookies have a variety of shaped cookies, Monica? The tins of butter cookies I remember had different shapes of butter cookies but my very favorite was shaped like a little pretzel with sugar crystals on top. I couldn’t ever eat Toblerone because of nut allergies, but it was a favorite of my mother and sister, especially when we lived in Europe. Food memories can produce both smiles and a sort of aching nostalgia. I like to try to imagine the fond food memories my kids may have some day. I am guessing that many of your son’s fond memories will involve amazing chocolate desserts!
The very ones and I’m not kidding when I say my favorite was likewise the pretzel-shape with coarse sugar! I could never decide which to take (part of the fun was deciding) but in the end, that was my fave. : ) You are so right about the smiles and ‘aching nostalgia’ and I also thought about what would be my son’s memories one day when I was reading this!! haha
It’s amazing how much our palates change as we age. A lot of childhood treats like M&Ms and Oreos have stood the test of time – they taste just as good to me now as they did back then. But I recently had a twinkie and spat it out. It tasted nothing like the delicousness I remembered. Same with a fudgsicle that I bought a few years ago from the ice cream truck. Sigh. Some things are best left in the past. These butterscotch oatmeal bars are a fantastic way to pay homage to those butterscotch candies your dad used to buy you. They look incredible moist ‘n fluffy inside!
I so agree, Nancy! There are very few packaged candies or cookies that I find irresistible, but m&m’s and oreos taste as good today as they did when, despite chocolate allergies, I sneakily ate them as a child. 🙂 Why sugary Crisco ever tasted good, I can’t explain, but the filling in Twinkies is just gross. The problem is, you can never be sure which things are best left in the past until you try them and are disappointed when they don’t live up to your expectations. Sigh in commiseration! These bars offer full butterscotch flavor, but the texture is more chewy (all of those oats!) than fluffy. 🙂
As soon as I saw the name, I knew I was going to love these. They look wonderful!
Thanks, Chris! Butterscotch is funny. You either love it or you don’t. Rarely is there an in between. These are bars for the butterscotch lover. 🙂
Wow! I can kind of taste these in my mouth just by looking at the pictures, butterscoth is sooo nostalgic to me
Thanks, Becca! If you ever need a quick break from chocolate (or just another flavor on the side), butterscotch is great! Butterscotch in a chewy, oaty bar is even better. You could always add some mini chocolate chips too!
These look so yummy! I can’t wait to try them. Butterscotch is a flavor that is hard to find yet one I love. Thanks for sharing!
-Tracy
4th Grade Dynamic Duo
Thanks, Tracy! I agree that butterscotch is a flavor that is often forgotten, but then when we find it we remember how much we enjoy it! These butterscotch bars should do the trick! 🙂
My daughter is going to make and send these to her grandfather. My family loves butterscotch! I have been searching for recipes that would survive a summer trip in the mail from Nevada to Florida. This is the answer to my prayers! I can’t wait to see what other goodies I find in your recipes.
Thank you so much, Megan! I am thrilled that your daughter will be sending these bars to her grandfather! I hope he loves them. 🙂 It is much harder to find recipes that work for warm weather care packages but the desert safe recipes have made it happily to Afghanistan, so they should travel equally happily to Florida! 🙂
Butterscotch is the Rodney Dangerfield of flavours…it doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Chocolate gets all the accolades while butterscotch/caramel is a sorry second. You have done butterscotch lovers proud with these bars Wendy. The oatmeal cookies topping is genius!
I need you to write the introductions to my recipes, Cindy! I LOVE that line,”Butterscotch is the Rodney Dangerfield of flavours…it doesn’t get the respect it deserves.” If I can figure out how to use Twitter, I will even tweet it (with proper credit given to the source, of course 🙂 ) After watching the popularity of certain pins recently, I think that it might be lemon that comes in second, pushing butterscotch/caramel to a pathetic third! However, this baker will not be deterred from proclaiming the virtues of butterscotch!
I am not sure which planet this recipe is for. I had to make a large number and doubled the ingredients, and baked them in a half-sheet cake pan. They bubbled up the sides of the pan and into the oven. Instant smoke and smell.
Is there a high altitude adjustment? (I live in Colorado, near Denver.)
Hi, Dennis. I am sorry your bars were not successful. This recipe was adapted from a Nestle’s Very Best Baking recipe you can find here: https://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/118635/butterscotch-scotchies Nestle’s made their bars very thin using this single (not doubled) recipe in a jelly roll pan. To make my bars thicker, I used a 9″x 9″ pan for the same amount of batter. I believe that the problem is not the recipe, but the height of the sides of your pan. A 9″ x 9″ pan has 2″ high sides and a jelly roll (a.k.a. half sheet pan) pan has only 1″ sides. That would definitely make the batter rise up and over the sides. For thin bars only use the recipe as written. Do not double.