Oatmeal Butterscotch Crumble Bars

I moved into the glorious new apartment on Tuesday – which was wonderful and stressful, as such things are. And, of course, having unpacked and organized my kitchen yesterday (because there’s enough space in this one!), the first thing I wanted to do was bake something. 

This wasn’t a terribly practical impulse given that I’m leaving town for the holidays tomorrow, but practicality rarely enters into my relationship with baking. Since I had a friendly gathering to attend this evening, I figured that was all the excuse I needed. My concession was to make something which I already had ingredients for.

I bookmarked this Food Network recipe for Oatmeal Cream Cheese Butterscotch Bars a couple weeks ago, and without reading the directions carefully, it seemed like a snap. It sort of was – but that was with some cheating in terms of dairy products not really being room temperature and not waiting for the crust to cool… but I don’t think that really mattered.

In hindsight, I perhaps should have realized these would have a more shortbread-y crust, since, well, the crust is essentially a shortbread. I tend to want more chewy/cakey crusts, but everybody at the gathering loved them, and the flavor is nice.

With the cinnamon and lemon, it ends up smelling a bit like an apple crumble, so I think my name for them is more indicative of what you’re actually getting. The cream cheese filling adds some moistness but not as much as having cream cheese in the name lead me to suspect. Next time (if there is a next time), I also won’t add as much lemon or maybe will use a smaller lemon.

Oatmeal Butterscotch Crumble Bars (aka Oatmeal Cream Cheese Butterscotch Bars from Anne Burrell, Food Network)

Grade: B+ (based mainly on preference for chewiness)

Since these generally aren’t my recipes, unless I make major changes I’m just going to offer the ingredients list on my site (since that’ll give you the gist) and direct you to the original sites for instructions. This is my teacherly anti-plagiarism compromise. (But my picture is way better, so there.)

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 (11-ounce) bag butterscotch chips
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced (*would suggest not using this much – maybe 1 tsp zest and 2 Tbs juice)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions here.