Back in sophomore year in college, one of our favorite snacks is this yummy chocolate revel bars we buy for Php 25.00 each at the now defunct Coffee Club. Sometimes we’d buy two of those and enjoy the yummy chewy chocolatey goodness of it. Since the coffee shop closed within a year or so, the only way we could get our revel bar fix is whenever there’s a bazaar in our college and someone decides to sell them.
Last night, my mom asked me to look for chocolate revel bar recipes because she planned to bake some to bring for their outing. She was too tired to bake so the recipe was untouched. This afternoon, I was left alone at home (mom has a swimming thing and my brother has work) and I have nothing much to do except watch CSI:NY Season 3 and more TV. So what did I do? Bake. :P
Just a little backgrounder, I used to bake a lot when I was in high school, particularly the summer before sophomore year. I bake every single afternoon — cookies, cakes, brownies (the most popular one), and whatever I could cook given the ingredients we have at home. My mom liked it, and that started her baking, which started my brother’s baking/cooking too.
Anyway, so this afternoon, I decided to get busy in the kitchen and get going on those chocolate revel bars. :) The picture above is the finished product, I’m done eating that slice, and bias aside: it’s so good. :P Here’s the recipe I used, from AllRecipes.com:
Chocolate Revel Bars
3 cups quick cooking oats
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
- In a large bowl, beat together 1 cup butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Mix in eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla. In another bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt; stir into butter mixture. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, heat sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, 2 tablespoons butter, and 1/2 teaspoon salt over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in walnuts and 2 teaspoons vanilla.
- Pat 2/3 of the oat mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread chocolate mixture evenly over the top, and dot with remaining oat mixture.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in preheated oven. Let cool on a wire rack, then cut into bars.
It does look a bit different from the one we used to buy. Some notes on this particular creation:
- I didn’t have enough all purpose flour, so I substituted the last half-cup with cake flour. For informational purposes, for every cup of all purpose flour, you could use one cup of cake flour plus two tablespoons more. Since I only need 1/2 cup, I got 1/2 cup of cake flour and one tablespoon. I don’t know if it affected the result since it’s been a long time since I ate one of these.
I was planning to mix it by hand as I always do with my baking (except for the cake) but this time I decided to save some time and used a mixer. I don’t know if the oat mixture is really that tough, so I had a hard time spreading the first later at the bottom of the pan. I thought I’d be using all of it up when the recipe says it’s only 2/3. If you look closely at the picture, you could see finger impressions on the tray, that’s because I used my hands to flatten the batter onto the tray because the wooden spoon is just not doing it right.- I baked this in the oven for 33 minutes. Yes, I like being midway. :)
- The batter looks a bit the same before and after being in the oven, except that after baking, the product looks thicker, plus the chocolate topping looks lighter.
- My mom just tasted it and she said it was too sweet. I agree (even if I had eaten about 1/8 of it :P), so maybe on the next time, I will cut down on the sugar on the oat mixture. But I think the sweetness makes it heavy on the tummy.
Best eaten with a cold glass of milk, with the bars not chilled. =) Doesn’t affect me even if I’m watching CSI:NY with all the blood and gore of the bodies found in the series. :P