A baking misadventure

I've been baking since I was probably 9 or 10 years old.  We won't discuss how many decades that translates to.  And yet I still have my share of occasional baking misadventures.  Not precisely failures, for the results are still partaken of and often even enjoyed, but misadventures for sure.  The most recent was only a couple of weeks ago:

I had told my hubby I would bake some cookies for a work-related event.  I made some peanut butter cookies with mini Snickers in the centers.  Turned out great, and I will share the link for that recipe soon, I hope. 

Then I decided I would like to make a quick batch of bar cookies as well.  I turned to an old Pillsbury booklet featuring quick and easy desserts, and didn't find just what I was looking for.  Then this old magazine clipping fell out.  It seemed meant to be, so I grabbed a can of sweetened condensed milk from the pantry (the only ingredient that wasn't already right at hand) and began work.

Well.  You would not believe the amount of mistakes one experienced baker could make in preparing one simple little recipe.  In my mind, I thought I should mix the flour, brown sugar, and butter and press them in the pan.  I skipped right over the oats.  So I scraped the dough out of the pan (which necessitated washing and drying said pan, so I used a clean one), put it back in the bowl, mixed in the oats and pressed the dough in the pan again.  After pouring the condensed milk over the unbaked crust -- another error: see below), I sprinkled on chocolate chips and chopped nuts and then saw that I should have reserved 1/2 cup of the oat mixture for sprinkling on top.

There was nothing to do but put the resulting mess in the oven and hope for the best.  The bars didn't look particularly appetizing, and by the time all was said and done they were still too warm to cut and package before  leaving for the event.

When we got home, I cut the bars and packed them in a tin, to be stored in the freezer for the next Sunday's potluck.  We ran a taste test on them and found that they tasted fine. 

Inexplicably, one of the teenage boys at the potluck absolutely loved these bars and asked his mom to get the recipe.  I typed it into my email to her as the ad is a bit difficult to read, but I attached the scan of the recipe so she could see how they were supposed to look.

If you are interested in trying these bars, and if you are less scatter-brained than I, here you go.

CHOCOLATE ’N’ OAT BARS
1 cup flour
1 cup quick oats
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350º.  In bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar and butter; mix well.  Set aside 1/2 cup of this mixture.  Press remaining oat mixture onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan.  Bake 10 minutes.  (Yet another direction which I personally did not see or heed.) 

Pour condensed milk evenly over crust.  Sprinkle with nuts and chocolate chips.  Top with remaining oat mixture; press down lightly.  Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly brown.  Cool and cut into 36 bars.  Store covered at room temperature.