And "Mischief Managed"

Fudgy oat bars, 2018 edition:



I used Ghirardelli dark-chocolate chips for these (60% cacao, the same kind I put on my oatmeal in the morning). I haven't cut into the bars but I did taste the leftover filling (you do it in a pan on top of the stove) and it's *incredible*

These are comparatively easy and everyone likes them so they are a good thing to make.

And this amuses the heck out of me:



Spiced shortbread (1 1/4 cups flour, 3 TB brown sugar, 1/2 t cinnamon, 1/4 t ginger, 1/8 t cloves, and 1/2 cup butter,  cut the butter in to the mixed dry ingredients, mix by hand until it forms a ball, roll out on wax paper....)

They are cut in Hello Kitty shapes - a set of cookie cutters I found some months back at one of the antique/resale shops in the area.

The whole idea amuses the heck out of me because I have one colleague who makes a big deal out of rolling his eyes over anything remotely cutesy, and I can just see him going "Only you, Erica. Only you" when he sees them.

The dough is a little crumbly but the good news is you can just shove it back together and re-roll it if need be.

I'm doing these at 300 but the timing is hard to decide: I checked at 6 minutes and at 8, and they weren't done yet. The recipe actually recommends doing them as a round and cutting "petticoat tails" and then baking a half-hour, but that's the very thick "Walker's style" shortbread, and I rolled these thinner.

I might also let them cool partway on the pan so they aren't so hard to remove, I don't know.

(I'm going to check again at 10 minutes...)