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A classic revel bar gets a dulce de leche upgrade! These decadent dessert bars are part oatmeal bars and gooey bars combined to make the most fantastic dulce de leche gooey bars. The soft oatmeal crust and topping give way to an ooey-gooey caramel middle. Every bite is better than the last!
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What is a Revel Bar?
Besides eating dulce de leche, I love saying “dulce de leche.” I feel like I sound so worldly instead of just saying “rich indulgent caramel” even though they’re pretty much the same thing.
It’s one of my favorite ingredients, and this time I used dulce de leche to make revel bars. And, let me say, it was a very good choice on my part.
Revel bars are oatmeal cookie bars with a filling. They’re like gooey bars meet oatmeal blondies.
Like blondies, the cookie dough base is made with butter and brown sugar and a healthy dose of quick-cooking oats. Like a gooey bar, you press half the dough in the pan, pour gooey goodness over the top, and then drop the rest of the dough on top.
Traditional revel bars are made with melted chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk. These revel bars with oatmeal? They are made with dulce de leche.
Delicious Dulce de Leche Revel Bars
If you’re new to dulce de leche, allow me to introduce you. It’s a caramelly mixture made with milk and sugar that’s boiled down for hours and hours. It becomes thick, like peanut butter, but it’s caramel. It’s also the best stuff in the world.
You can buy dulce de leche in the grocery store. It comes in cans like sweetened condensed milk, usually in the baking aisle or sometimes in the international foods aisle. You can also make your own in a crockpot.
Then you use the wonderful mixture to make these Dulce de Leche Revel Bars, and I know, like I was, you’ll fall in love with them after the first bite.
Ingredients in Revel Bars
Butter: Start with softened unsalted butter – you can use salted if that’s all you have but reduce salt to 1/4 teaspoon.
Sugar: These are ALL brown sugar! Be sure pack the brown sugar when measuring.
Egg: Be sure to buy large eggs.
Vanilla Extract: This is for flavor – always buy PURE vanilla!
Baking Soda: This is a usual cookie ingredient – it helps the cookies get a soft and chewy texture.
Salt: For flavor, to cut sweetness. Be sure to lower it if you use salted butter.
All-purpose flour: Be sure to measure it correctly.
Quick-cooking oats: Did you know you can make your own quick oats if you only have old fashioned?
Dulce de leche: Use canned or homemade.
How to Cook Revel Bars
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9×9” square pan with foil or parchment paper and spray it with cooking spray.
- Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a bowl and a hand mixer). Beat in the egg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the flour, and then slowly mix in oats.
- Lightly coat your hands with cooking spray to keep the dough from sticking while you press half the mixture into a thin layer in the prepared pan.
- Warm the dulce de leche in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave. You need to warm it, so it’s spreadable but not too liquidy.
- Pour the dulce de leche evenly over the oatmeal layer, leaving a ¼” border around the edge.
- Drop the rest of the oatmeal mixture by the spoonful over the filling. Lightly press it into an even layer. Don’t worry if it doesn’t completely cover the filling.
- Bake the bars for 23 to 28 or until the tops are golden brown, but the bars are still jiggly. Cool them completely before slicing.
How to Store Cookie Bars
Revel bars will keep in an airtight container for four days at room temperature.
Or, you can freeze them. If you do, store them in a single layer in a freezer bag, and they will keep for up to a month.
Expert Tips
- Don’t worry if your oatmeal dough is sticky – just spray your hands with cooking spray, so it’s easy to press the dough into the pan.
- You only need to warm the dulce de leche for 45 to 60 seconds in the microwave. Stir it, and it should be a spreadable consistency.
- If you want to make a double batch of revel bars, double the ingredients for the oatmeal crust and topping. You may only need 1 ½ can of dulce de leche for the filling. Bake the bars in a 10×15” jelly roll pan.
- These Dulce de Leche Revel Bars are gooey to the nth degree, and it’s a whole lot easier to slice them once they are completely cooled. So resist the urge to cut them sooner – you’ll end up with a gooey mess. A delicious one, yes, but for neater bars, wait to slice them.
If you’re not already a fan of dulce de leche, I can promise you will be after you give this revel bars recipe a try. The combination of the gooey caramel filling with the oatmeal is amazing. Go on and give them a try – you know you want to!
Other Dulce de Leche Recipes
Other Cookie Bar Recipes to Try:
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Dulce de Leche Revel Bars
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup (200g) brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1¼ cups (155g) all purpose flour
- 1½ cups (128g) quick cooking oats
- 1 about 13 ounces can dulce de leche
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9×9” square pan with foil and spray well with cooking spray. You can use parchment in place of foil, if you prefer.
- Cream butter and sugar in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream until smooth, just a minute or so. Beat in egg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Mix in flour then slowly mix in oats.
- Press half the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. It will be a thin layer. The dough is sticky so I suggest spraying your hands with cooking spray to help the dough not stick to you.
- Place dulce de leche in a small microwave safe bowl. Heat about 45-60 seconds in the microwave, then stir until smooth. You just want to make it spreadable, not too liquidy. In it’s normal form it would be too hard to spread over the raw dough.
- Pour the dulce de leche evenly over the bars, trying to keep a 1/4” border around the edges of the pan.
- Use two spoons to scoop the remaining dough all over the top of the bars. Press slightly with your fingers to smooth the lumps of dough. It will not completely cover.
- Bake for about 23-28 minutes, until the top of the bars are golden brown. The pan will still be jiggly. Let them cool completely before attempting to slice. They’ll be gooey!
- Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days or freeze in a single layer for up to one month.
Recipe Nutrition
Dulce de Leche Revel Bars are an easy cookie bar filled with caramel dulce de leche! Oatmeal Cookie Gooey Bars are super rich and gooey and these are SO GOOD!
OK you have convinced me to make these. That is just so unfair on so many levels… I do so love dulce de leche! MMMmmm…
I simply love dulce de leche, and I’m one of those people who say caramel and dulce de leche are not the same thing. 🙂 I love them both though! These bars look amazing, Dorothy!
I love how much more milky the ddl is! So yum. Thanks Shinee!
Between the dulce de leche and the brown sugar, I bet the caramely undertones were more like overtones and I bet it was heaven! And then the oats for texture to balance the goo factor, THESE are my people 🙂 I would eat the whole thing!
You and me both!
These dulce de leche bars look wickedly delicious.. i can’t get enough of all that gooey center.
Thanks Thalia!
These look dangerously delish! Definitely pinning, love both your butterscotch brownnies and those oatmeal cookie magic bars 🙂 Drooling!
Thanks for the pins!
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