Gooey Chocolate Chip Sandwich bars

                                                           Picture courtesy of recipegirl.com

Hello love. When I looked at this picture (from recipegirl.com) and saw this gooey layer in the middle and read the title I knew these bars had to be made. Um...yeah. I made them for a ward trunk-or-treat. Boy do I regret that! I got the equivalent of a bite. Serious. But I heard all about them. I should've saved and ate the whole pan. :) This is also the time that I should mention that I won the chili contest (with a total of about thirty entries) and served the White Chicken Chili found on this blog. Enjoy!

GOOEY CHOCOLATE FILLING:

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract



COOKIES:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned rolled oats (I used quick- they worked great)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt (I used regular salt)

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I only used two here...I thought 5 cups of chocolate chips between the filling and dough was a bit much...so I opted for a more reasonable number of four! AH!!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a 9x13-inch pan with parchment paper, allowing enough overhang on the long side to lift the bars from the pan.
2. Prepare the gooey chocolate filling: Place the chocolate chips and condensed milk in a small saucepan over the lowest possible heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the chocolate has melted and the mixture has thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, add vanilla, and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. Prepare the cookie dough: Place the butter and sugars in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Beat well. Whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add to the butter mixture. Beat until everything is well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Prepare the bars: Using half of the batch of cookie dough, place dollops into the prepared pan and press down lightly to even it out. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the dough and then add small dollops of the remaining dough on top. Don't worry if the dollops don't completely cover the chocolate mixture. Just spread it together as much as you can, and let some chocolate peek through.
5. Bake until lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Set aside to cool completely, then cut into 32 bars.

**TIP: Refrigerate bars to firm up and then cut while chilled. Serve room temperature.