Grandma Cole's Fudge Nut Bars

Christmas is in the air and there is no better place than Chicago during the holidays!  The lights are hung around town, there is a smell of Christmas trees when I walk down the street, and of course, fun holiday parties make it a magical time of year.  It also brings on some reflection of the year that has passed.  With this I would like to say THANK YOU to all of you who read my blog.  In just a little over a year, there have been ~4,700 pageviews!!  Not too shabby for a hobby of mine. 

 I am sure there are many, maybe even most, families out there that have traditional foods they make during the holidays.  The Klindt family is no different. One of my favorite memories around Christmas time is when Grandma Cole would roll into town.  She would always bring some goodies with her, and today’s recipe is one of those goodies.  Over the past few years as she grew a bit older, she stopped bringing this with her and eventually she couldn’t remember the recipe.  I knew this was a recipe we needed to find so it can continue to be passed down, and my favorite Aunt, Aunt Colleen, headed to Grandma’s house to go through everything and she found the recipe on what looks like an old magazine page with three other recipes on it.  Big thanks to Aunt Colleen for finding it!!

I hope you try these…they are AMAZING!! 

I also went through some pictures while I was home over Thanksgiving and stumbled across these two…not much has changed…

Ingredients:

1 Cup Butter

2 Cups Light Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

2 tsp. Vanilla

2.5 Cups of Sifted Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

3 Cups Quick Rolled Oats (uncooked)

Fudge Nut Filling:

1 (12 oz) Package Semisweet Chocolate Pieces

1 Cup Sweetened Condensed Milk (not evaporated)

2 tblsp Butter

½ tsp Salt

1 Cup Chopped Nuts (pecans)

2 tsp Vanilla

Directions:

Cream together butter and sugar.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.  Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.  Sitr in rolled oats.  Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture.  Set aside while you make the filling. 

In a saucepan, slowly melt chocolate pieces, mix in sweetened condensed milk, butter and salt.  Stir until mixture is smooth.  Stir in nuts and vanilla.

Spread about two thirds of oatmeal mixture in the bottom of a greased 15.5x10.5 pan.  Cover with chocolate mixture evenly.  Dot the top with remaining oatmeal mixture. 

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned.  Makes 60 (2x1 inch) bars.