by I love Potbelly’s Sandwich Works. They toast the subs, they are extremely cheap and they have Sheila’s Dream Bars. I purchase one of these puppies each and every time I enter Potbelly’s. So the other day I had a thought, why purchase a sub to get a Dream Bar when I could make them at home. Only problem. I have no recipe and I need to purchase a couple dream bars to get it right. The second part was no problem. This is my first attempt at the dream bar.
Not quite the same, but still a damn good cookie bar.
Dream Bar #1 (AKA – First Try)
- Crust
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup oats
- 2 tbs vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Filling
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbs flour
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together the shortening and the brown sugar. When light and fluffy add the vegetable oil, oats, flour and salt. If the mixture needs a little more moisture to stay together, add a tad bit more oil.
Grease your hands with a tad bit of vegetable oil and press the mixture into a 9×13 pan. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
While the crust is blind baking, mix the eggs and brown sugar in a bowl. Stir in the flour, baking powder and vanilla. Mix well. Then finally fold in the nuts, coconut and chocolate chips. Don’t worry this will be a bit runny.
Spread the mixture over the top of the pre-baked crust. Spread it out evenly. Place the pan back into the preheated oven for another 12-15 minutes. Remove when the top turns golden brown.
Let cool before cutting.
These tasted like Dream Bars, but did not have the right texture or consistency. Not that they are bad, they were actually awesome. I enjoyed them a ton. I might actually make these again. The top was chocolate chip cookie like and the bottom was soft and chewy and the middle was gooey awesome. While not quite the Dream bars that I wanted, they were tasty.
