DISCLAIMER:  After a comment posted that Milky Way bars are NOT gluten-free…I did a little research and found that much to my chagrin…that is true! (See my comments at end of post).  So instead of butchering up this entire post…I’m going to leave it as originally written, but add this disclaimer. The LAST thing I want is for ANYONE to get sick!

 

Look what I made today! Well, sorta, but not quite.  See, I got a little confused with this recipe, but it didn’t really matter because how can you go wrong with MILKY WAY candy bars in the recipe?  :-)

I found this recipe for Oatmeal Brownie Milky Way Bars at Life’s Too Short To Skip Dessert. It’s adapted from two recipes…one from Martha Stewart and one from The Pioneer Woman.

The first recipe from Martha was Oatmeal Bars. But in a BRILLIANT move, she substituted the caramel and chocolate chips in Martha’s recipe with Milky Way bars….inspired by The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for Milky Way Cake!

Well, if that wasn’t confusing enough…*I* enter the mix and put my own GLUTEN-FREE spin on the recipes and come up with something that I am convinced has to be JUST as yummy as any of these recipes!  Like I said…with Milky Ways as an ingredient…it’s hard to go wrong. Not only are they a completely delicious candy bar…but SO much easier to melt a couple of candy bars than unwrap all those little caramels that most recipes like this call for!  As sad as it makes me sound…that’s one of the main reasons I don’t make my mother-in-law’s Caramel Brownies more often.  I hate unwrapping all those darned caramels!

But by using Milky Way bars….problem solved!

OK…back to MY version of this recipe.  The recipe for Oatmeal Brownie Milky Way Bars calls for 2 cups of brownie mix, but I wanted to make mine gluten-free…so I left out the brownie mix, followed the basic recipe for Martha’s Oatmeal Bars, but used the Milky Way candy bars instead of the caramels and chocolate chips and baked it all together in one baking session….rather than baking it twice like Martha’s recipe called for.  MAJOR time-saver!  And I was in a hurry because I decided at the LAST minute to make these for a family get-together this evening.

So are you thoroughly confused now? No worries. Whatever version of these recipes you try…you will not be disappointed! (That is if you like oooey, gooey, chewy, chocolatey brownies! If not, I can’t help you.)

So in attempt to sort all of this out.  Here are the FOUR different versions of the same general deliciousness.

• Martha Stewart’s Oatmeal Bars
• The Pioneer Woman’s Milky Way Cake
• Life’s Too Short To Skip Dessert Oatmeal Brownie Milky Way Bars

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Jillee’s Gluten Free Version (of all three of the above)

6 Milky Way candy bars
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (I used GF oats)
2 cups all-purpose flour (I substituted Pamela’s Gluten Free Baking Mix)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda  (not necessary when using the baking mix because it already contains baking soda)
1 teaspoon salt (not necessary when using the baking mix because it already contains salt)
10 ounces (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-by-13- inch baking pan with cooking spray. Put Milky Way candy bars and cream in a saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until melted. Let cool.

Stir together oats, flour (Pamela’s Baking Mix), and brown sugar, in a large bowl. Blend in butter with a fork or your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal; press half of mixture onto bottom of lined pan. Pour melted Milky Way candy bars over mixture. Put other half of oats/flour mixture on top and press down.

Bake until golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.

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