"Holy Caramel, Batman!!"- Dulce de Leche Oatmeal Bars

 So first off, kudos to the barista that drew this 8-bit wizard character on a chalkboard at Starbucks. Very cool, my friend, very cool.

Not only di it earn my respect, bu it also inspired me to hit the kitchen and bake up something incredibly sweet (the drink has white chocolate, mocha, AND cinnamon dolce. A pinnacle of inspiration!). The dolce part in particular made me crave something in the line of Dulce de Leche. So I traversed the farthest reaches of the internet food-blogger sphere in search of something to quench my desire.

And then I found the Dulce de Leche bars on Brown Sugar Momma's site. They looked super yummy and full of delicious caramel, so I decided to go ahead and make them! Plus, there's oatmeal, so its healthy. Right? Yeah, totally healthy.

Dulce de Leche Oatmeal Bars:

Ingredients-

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup oatmeal, instant style

1 c packed brown sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/4 tsp salt

1 13-15 oz can of Dulce de Leche, can be found in your grocery store's Spanish section

1 c butterscotch morsels

Instructions-

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Get out a 13 x 9 in. pan. No need to grease as there is a metric ton of butter in it. Also, grab your preferred drink of the day (I'm still a bad influence).

Abita's Strawberry lager. Tart, fresh, and not too hoppy

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, oatmeal and salt.

3. Cut in the butter. I recommend pre-dicing the butter into smaller bits and using a pastry dough cutter if you happen to have one.

4. Cut in the butter until the mix is crumbly. Then, spread out 3/4ths of the mix into the pan. Bake 10 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, heat up the dulce de leche itself so it can be poured more easily.

Then, eat the remainder that you can't get out of the jar.

6. Spread the dulce de leche over the pre-baked crust. Crumble the remaining oatmeal mixture and sprinkle on the butterscotch morsels. 

The original recipe calls for toffee bits, but I couldn't find them. The butterscotch worked as a pretty good substitute though, so no worries!

7. Bake 20-30 minutes at 350, or until golden brown and bubbly.

Wait for the melted, lava hot caramel to cool, then use a knife to loosen the borders of the bars. Cut into bars and enjoy!

These bars are super chewy and super, super sweet. Probably just as sweet as these candy corn bars I tried out for Halloween last Fall. Those literally gave me too much of a sugar high. And that's nearly impossible (still amazing though!!). Its a good thing I have a willing group of people to eat anything I bake, otherwise all my teeth may have rebelled against me. Grad students never reject free food. Never.

Well, that's about it for today. Gonna go hit the books and try to work on my scarf, if Rosie will let me. Ciao! 

"As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes." - Mel Brooks

Now What Do I Do With My Life- Still Have Harry Potter Withdrawal?

Ah, Harry Potter. Magic, Mystery, Mayhem. Fancy British writing that is waay better than my lame alliterations. How I miss it still. Can you believe its been 7 years since Deathly Hallows was released? SEVEN. How is this even possible?!?!

Its so strange that a book series is still such an important part of my, and others, existence. I'm pretty sure that I make at least one HP quote a day. I've seen real-life Quidditch. I voted the fandom #3 in my Top 5 Fandoms list. I'm also pretty sure that I watch at least one movie every month (curse you ABC Family for your incessant re-runs!). I'm even still vehement that I'm a Ravenclaw. 

But so far the Great and Powerful J.K. Rowling hasn't done much to alleviate and HP fan's obsessive needs. Oh, well. At least that chick that wrote Twilight hasn't written any more of those "novels." I think my heart would break if she had another book come out before J.K. did...

So, how does a sad Harry Potter fan cope with such an absence? Well, you could re-read the books. Go to LeakyCon. Read fanfiction (be careful, sh** gets cray cray. You have been warned). Or, if you're like me and my friend K-Pond.....make cupcakes!!! Butterbeer cupcakes to be exact!

I just wanted a simple recipe for them, since some get really complicated. Plus, I live in Florida and its already Summery hot here. Quick and easy is a must in the Summer. Luckily I found one on The Domestic Rebel's site. They're quick, easy, and butterscotchy. So, so good!

ButterBeer Cupcakes

Ingrediants:

1 box yellow cake mix

1 can butterscotch soda (or really good cream soda, which I used)

1 small box instant butterscotch pudding

butterscotch sundae sauce

~4 cups powdered sugar

1 cup butter, room temperature

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pan with liners.

2.) In a large bowl, beat the soda and cake mix together until combined. NOTHING ELSE. 

3.) Add in the pudding mix and combine.

4.) Fill the cupcake liner up to 2/3 the way. Bake for 13-16 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. They will be spongy, but they are cooked.

*Forget to take a picture*

5.) Beat together the butter and 3tbs to half a jar of the butterscotch sauce, depending on your tastes. Add in the powdered sugar slowly. If you use a lot of butterscotch, you'll need to have more than 4 cups of powdered sugar to help it set. 

6.) Ice the cupcakes and enjoy!

I can't promise these taste exactly like butterbeer, but they are really gooey and taste a lot like butterscotch. Eh, I liked them. So whatevs. There are a ton of different recipes for butterbeer cupcakes out there on the internet, so you can definitely find one you like!

So, will you be giving theses cupcakes a try? What do you miss most about Harry Potter? Do you want J.K to write another in-universe book? Leave a comment below and, as always, subscribe and share if you likey~

*All hail Pinterest. All hail.....my new Froakie plushie!!! He guards my laptop and remotes.