I have made this many times since my family and colleagues like it. My primary complaint is that the fudginess of my revel bars was hit or miss, probably because the chocolate layer is very sensitive to cooking time. If I underbake to make it fudgy, it becomes difficult to cut into bars because the chocolate becomes very sticky, and it also results to an uneven top with cracks on it, i.e., not pretty. The best procedure I've tried so far is this: (1) reduce flour to 2 cups; (2) I've always used wider pans as suggested by many reviewers -- 14x10 for one recipe, 9x9 for half recipe; (3) refrigerate the oatmeal mixture for a couple of hours before baking as you would a cookie, with the bottom layer already in place. Then I crumble the remaining lump of oatmeal mixture and sprinkle on top of the chocolate layer; (3) use the least heat possible to melt the chocolate chips. It's better that small bits of chocolate remain rather than overcooking it; and lastly, (4) let the chocolate mixture cool quite a bit. I make the fudge right after putting the oatmeal mixture in the refrigerator, and assemble right before putting in the oven. Following these procedures have resulted to chewy revel bars but easy to cut.
These were a great change from the standard bar cookie. I have made them twice, but the second time I used a bar pan (I think it is 15 x 2). I poured the entire oatmeal mixture on the bottom and then topped it with all of the chocolate mixture. I think they were much prettier and easier to cut.
My mom made these from her recipe from the 1970's for Christmas this year. What a hit! She made hers in a jelly roll pan which makes a big difference. Once they're cut, keep them in a cookie tin separated by wax paper to keep them fresh as plastic containers sometime don't "agree" with chocolate/fudge type cookies. If your batch is DRY - YOU'VE OVERCOOKED THEM!!
I've made these 3 times and it's a FAMILY FAVORITE! The first time I started making but to my dismay I didn't have any chocolate chips on hand. I substituted 9 T unsweetened cocoa 9 T sugar and 1/3 C butter to replace the chocolate chips. It was melt-in-your-mouth YUMMY! The 2nd time I used the chocolate chips the recipe called for still good but not as wonderful as we'd remembered. Last night I made again with the cocoa mixture and WOW!! We prefer it this way!
I've been making this for years and have yet to get a bad review. I add around 1/4 cup condensed milk to the oatmeal mix to make it chewier. When melting the chocolate it is important not to get the flame up too high. Otherwise the chocolate becomes too runny making it very messy and impossible to cut into pieces.
These are great bars! I always make this recipe in a larger bar pan and I find that it turns out better than in a 9 x 13 pan.
These were delicious. I took them to an outing and everyone loved them. I did make one mistake that ended up making them taste even better. I accidentally put about 1/4 cup of the sweetened condensed milk in the cookie layer part. It ended up making them very chewy and good. I'll probably make this mistake again!
These are very rich and tasty bars. The oatmeal layer could probably be reduced by half for the 13x9 pan-- it was thick and a little dry. Perhaps next time I will add less oatmeal. Also I sprinkled the walnuts on top instead of adding them to the chocolate which made a prettier presentation. The chocolate layer is delicious. With a little tweaking this recipe can be very good.
A winner! The one thing that may not make it 5 stars these are very rich (if you don't like that don't make them). My only change was to leave out the nuts. I was surprised with how nice these looked; they're the sort of thing you would bring to a bake sale if you can sneak any out of the house:-p Fixes your chocolate & oatmeal cravings in one dessert.
I dont know what the hype is about. I ended up throwing away all but the 1 piece each my family tried. Too heavy. Just okay.
