Recipe - Oat Pecan Cream Bars

Besides a breakfast cereal, a favorite way to eat oats is in breads, muffins, and desserts. Oats add a hearty texture and nutty taste, and are a great way to incorporate some fiber and some of the other nutritional benefits of oats into your diet - in a form everyone will eat! While you don't want to eat oatmeal cookies for breakfast every day, it's certainly okay to have them as a treat from time to time, and you know at least part of the ingredients are healthy.

These tasty bars make a yummy, hearty after-dinner snack, and you can cut down on the sugar, or substitute honey or other natural sweeteners if desired.

Oat Pecan Brown Sugar Bars

Image via WikipediaIngredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup sugar (or honey)
2 eggs, separated
2 Tbsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups old fashioned oats, uncooked
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar (for topping)
3/4 cup chopped, lightly toasted pecans

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray, or butter.
• In large bowl, put butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and white sugar (or honey).
• Mix with electric beater until light and fluffy.
• Add egg yolks, water, and vanilla extract and continue to beat until well blended.
• Add oats, flour, and baking soda and blend well with a wooden spoon until a dough is formed.
• Spread dough in bottom of baking pan.
• Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove and place on rack to cool.
• Turn the oven down to 325 degrees.
• In a new cold bowl, add egg whites and beat with electric mixer until light and foamy.
• Slowly add 1/2 cup brown sugar, continuing to beat until you get stiff peaks.
• Distribute this mixture over the bars, spreading to edges of pan. 
• Put pecans on top, sprinkling evenly. Put in 325 degree oven and bake 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned.
• Remove and cool for 10 minutes on a rack.
• Cut into bars, then when cooled completely, remove from pan and serve.