Recipe - Chocolate Oatmeal Cake

CRUST
2 One half cup Allpurpose flour
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Vegetable shortening
2 cup Light brown sugar; packed
2 lg Eggs
2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
3 cup Rolled oats

FILLING
1 Semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoon Butter
1 Sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 cup Walnuts; chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the crust, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large
bowl, cream the vegetable shortening and brown sugar. Beat in the eggs and
vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Fold in the rolled oats.
Press 2/3 of the crust mixture into an ungreased 13 x 9 inch baking pan.

To prepare the filling, melt the chocolate chips and butter in a double
boiler over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in
the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Fold in the nuts.

Spread the filling evenly over the crust in the baking pan. Press the
remaining crust mixture on top of the filling. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes,
until firm to the touch. Cool in the pan on a wire rack before butting
into large or small bars.

Variation: I substituted approximately 1 cup coconut for the nuts. It was
very good.
Contributor: 1001 Cookie Recipes from Gregg R. Gillespie Posted to
MMRecipes Digest V4 #146 by Shirley Jackson sjack@gte.net on May 26,
1997