Three-layer oatmeal chocolate fudge cookies

It is a gorgeous day here in Kansas City.  The weather is pleasantly mild, quite sunny, and the plants are all coming alive as you can see by one of the early-blooming flowers from one my landscape beds in the picture above.  It's a good day for opening up the doors and windows, letting in light and fresh air, and cooking up some good food.  Today I'm making three-layer oatmeal chocolate fudge cookies.

These are a time-consuming but fun cookie to make.  Butter is beaten until very smooth and soft.  Then brown sugar is added, lots of brown sugar, and all of that is beaten for at least two minutes.  Eggs are added along with vanilla and the mixture is beaten until it is light, almost fluffy.  Flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon are stirred in slowly and on low speed.  Then old-fashioned oats are added and finally chopped peanuts as well.

A portion of this cookie dough is taken out and put aside.  The rest is pressed into a 9x13 inch cake pan to make the bottom layer.

For the middle layer, butter, chocolate and condensed milk are heated and melted together in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.  Then vanilla, salt, and peanuts are added, and the mixture is slowly poured over the cookie dough layer already in the pan.  It is spread until it covers the bottom layer completely.

Now, the cookie dough that was put aside when the first layer was put down is broken into bits and scattered across the chocolate layer.  And the whole thing is baked for about 25 minutes.

When it comes out of the oven, it is set aside on a cooling rack for two hours.  Finally a blunt knife is run around the edges to loosen the cookie block.  Put a tray over the top and turn the whole thing over the let the block fall from the pan.  Remove the pan and put another tray on the block that is now bottom-up, and turn it over again to bring it right-side-up.  At this point the whole thing is put into the fridge to chill before cutting.

I usually cut the entire block into twelve large pieces.

And there you have it.  It is crunchy on top, a bit soft and chewy in the middle and a blend of crunchy and chewy on the bottom.  A wonderful bar cookie with many flavors and textures.  One bar cookie by itself will fill you up.  And since it has lots of oats in it, it's healthy so eat as many as you want.  At least, that's what I tell myself.