There are just some things that cannot be substituted or duplicated. Like ranch dressing, hazelnut spread, cherry pie filling, or Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups. Try as you might, it’s just impossible to make some things at home that work as well in recipes or taste the same as certain foods, whether you like it or not.
Another example of this is sweetened condensed milk. This tooth-achingly sweet version of milk in a can makes so many recipes taste fabulous and they just aren’t the same without it. Can you make it at home? Most likely. Would it taste the same? Probably not. But I’m willing to have someone else do the work for me in this case.
If you happen to have some of that fabulous milk on hand, you probably also have the rest of the ingredients to make this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars. These bars are composed of an oatmeal cookie-like layer on the bottom, a rich fudge center, and are dotted with more oatmeal cookie dough on top. Mine were made without the peanuts and raisins to increase their chances of being eaten at my house, but I know they would be great if you like them at yours.
Give Lillian a visit at Confectiona’s Realm to see the recipe or find it in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.
Shortbread 
Those look amazingly delicious and dangerous.
I had the guys tell me the same thing…they liked this recipe just as it was, loved it, didn’t think I should mess around with it and could I please make it again today or tomorrow? Was a huge hit. Yours look lovely.
Great photos! And yes, these are very dangerous. I had to steer clear! And I was happy the boys were eating them up! I left out raisins and peanuts, too, because I knew they wouldn’t eat them. I used pecans and caramel instead–making them even more dangerous!
These were just phenomenally delicious! Yours like awesome!!!!
Your bars look amazing. We’ve got to do what we can to make sure other people eat the treats, don’t we?
Sun! I can tell you had sun for your photos! And your bars look great, really. But we haven’t had sun for almost a week so it makes me very excited. 🙂
Oh, and I forgot to say that I love your new format. Nice and clean.