I feel as though I may be letting my Minnesotan shine through a little too much lately. This could be my second bar post in the last couple of months. I guess not everyone calls bars…..bars. I don’t know. I’ve only ever lived in North Dakota and Minnesota where bars are just bars. I’ll leave this matter up to you that live elsewhere to figure out.
This recipe is handy as I find that I have most of the ingredients on hand. Well, except perhaps the whipping cream. I swiped this version from a local church cookbook that is probably almost as old as I am. I suspect you could swap the heavy whipping cream for something else. Perhaps butter?


- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups oatmeal
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 6 TBSP brown sugar
- 3/4 melted butter
- 3 TBSP whipping cream
- 1- 14 oz package caramels
- 3/4 cup whipping cream
- 1/2 cup broken nuts
- 1. Crust: Mix crust ingredients, reserve 1 cup for topping.
- 2. Pat mixture into pan {9x13) and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.
- 3. Caramel Mixture: In a double boiler melt caramels with whipping cream. Pour over baked crust.
- 4. Add nuts to reserved crumbs and spread over caramel mixture.
- 5. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees

My first thought was evaporated milk as a substitute for whipping cream so I looked it up and sure enough you can use evaporated milk. The suggestion was to add a little vanilla to the evaporated milk. You can also use milk with a little corn starch mixed into it to thicken it. These bars look delicious!
That is such a great substitute! Thanks for finding out!