Turtle Squares

These squares are quite chocolatey and delicious. The base reminds me of the base for Nanaimo Bars, in both the preparation method and the ingredients. However, this recipe simply used rolled oats and flour in place of shredded coconut and graham cracker crumbs. This recipe also contains no egg to bind the crust together,so you do not have to worry about cooking it to a proper temperature. The cocoa, butter, sugar, and nuts are the same, although I leave the nuts out of both recipes, with excellent results. These bars are fairly thin, not very high, I think the caramel filling, as delicious as it is, could have easily been doubled, but that might overwhelm the chocolate flavor a bit. The recipe comes from Company's Coming "Chocolate Squared", a small cookbook filled with delicious chocolate bar recipes. They get the name from the classic combination of caramel, pecans, and often chocolate, made popular by the "Turtles" chocolates.

Turtle Squares
CRUST
1 cup butter or hard margarine 
1 3/4 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose (plain) flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 chopped pecans or walnuts, optional
FILLING
1/2 cup butter or hard margarine 
1/2 packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (125 mL) sweetened condensed milk
2 Tablespoons corn syrup (golden)
GLAZE
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or 4 semi-sweet chocolate baking squares, one ounce each)
2 Tablespoons butter or hard margarine

Preheat oven to 350◦F. Grease or line a 9x13 inch rectangular baking pan.
CRUST: In a medium heavy saucepan over medium heat, heat and stir all ingredients together until melted and combined. Press firmly into prepared pan. Bake for about 15 minutes until set. Cool slightly.
FILLING: In a medium heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring all ingredients to a boil. Boil for five minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and beat gently for two minutes until slightly thickened, do not overbeat. Spread over bottom layer. Cool completely.
GLAZE: Melt the chocolate and butter together until smooth. Spread evenly over filling.

Paré, Jean. "Turtle Squares." Recipe. Chocolate Squared, Edmonton Alberta: Company's Coming Publishing Limited, 2009. 2.